What's for dinner Mom?

I get asked that question a lot. Hey Mom, what's for dinner? It seems like a simple enough question, but oh some days it can evoke panic. The kind of panic that makes you just want to go hide in the closet. I mean, didn't I just clean up the lunch dishes!? It's days like that when I realize, not only am I supposed to provide a stable, happy life, where they are educated....I have to feed the little boogers too!

Just when I feel like there is going to be NOTHING for dinner, the heavens open up. The good Lord reminds me of a fast recipe, that I actually have the ingredients for. A recipe that everyone will like, and dare I say, not hide it behind the coffee pot.

Just what is this wonder recipe you ask? Well, it's meatball subs of course!

To get this dish to come out just right, you need the perfect bowl. An heirloom bowl that your Grandmother used. Things just taste better when mixed in one of these. Me, being the youngest grandchild on my father's side, I have very little heirlooms from my Grandmother, so I cherish them.

Isn't it beautiful! I love the stained color, it shows it's history.

Well, then of course you need ingredients. You know, the good kind. We only eat local meat, and the eggs were from the backyard of course. The other ingredients came from Walmart...and there are some days when that is local enough...ya know what I mean?

Garlic....just a little, we aren't trying to scare off vampires here!

2 eggs

1 cup of shredded cheese

Italian seasoning ...just a scosh

salt and pepper to taste (who's taste, I'm not really sure, they just always say that)

2 cups of bread crumbs

Now, I NEVER have bread crumbs in the pantry. Not to worry, find your oldest daughter (or son, I don't have any of those though) and give her a box of Ritz crackers. They make perfect bread crumbs!

Roll them into odd shaped balls (we aren't Martha Stewart here) and fry them in a cup of olive oil. By the way, this is not a low fat dinner. That is probably why no one hid it behind the coffee pot.

Heat up some of that homemade marinara sauce you canned this past summer...what, you mean you didn't do that?? That's cool, Walmart sells that too ya know! Plop those browned balls of goodness on a bun with sauce and cheese. Stick them in the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese, and WALAA...you made dinner, and you did't have to hide in the closet pretending that you didn't know anyone was hungry! Good times, Good times. :-)

My new car came in the mail!!!!!

A couple of weeks ago my Sweet Man accompanied the girls and I on our grocery shopping run. We were so excited to have him spend the day with us. With him keeping an eye on the girls as they danced through the aisles , I was able to REALLY look at what in the world I was buying. I made the joke to someone last week, that I normally just stick my arm out and walk through the store, and let whatever I hit fall in the buggy. There is definitely some truth to that. ;-)

When we made it out to the car with our overloaded buggy, we were faced with a problem. The groceries normally go in the passenger seat of the car. With hubby being with us, there was no empty seat to pile the goods on. Now I love my car for many reasons. One of those reasons is that it is paid for!!  Can I get an AMEN on that one?! In theory our car has so much space. When we bought it we were so excited that it had three rows of seats. Now to use all three rows there is NO storage space for anything, except maybe a My Little Pony toy. To actually sit in the third row you have to either be a contortionist or not have any legs. My girls have legs.  They have been pretty compliant with having to bend in awkward ways, but it's getting old.

With our laps full of groceries and frustrations at an all time high, we decided to drive around and look at cars. I told Sweet Man that I really wanted a Ford Edge, but only if it was copper in color. The first used car lot we went to had.....a Ford Edge, but it was black. Our gravel driveway isn't suited for a black car. They just end up looking kind of splotchy gray. No temptation there.  At this point one the princesses expressed her need to go potty. RIGHT NOW!! Sweet Man offered to take her inside while I chatted with the man with dollar signs in his eyes. He mentioned that they just received a "new" Edge the day before and it was.....copper in color. I was like "No way, for real?!" Sweet Man returned and the negotiating began. We needed to know bottom line, what this was going to cost us on the month. We were told that they had a great interest rate and it would only be around $450 a month!! After I  regained my composure, I looked at all those groceries in my car. We very politely said we would give him a call if we were interested, knowing full well, we would never be giving him a call. For you see, we wouldn't need to worry about where to put those groceries if we bought that car, for there would be NO money leftover in the month to buy them.

We chatted about what didn't "work" with our car. The main thing I wanted was to have all three girls in the same row of the car. Our girls travel very well , and they like to play with each other. Without have a full seat belt in the middle seat, we always had one girl in the back. By herself. We looked online and found a seat belt that I felt comfortable with, and it was only $40. Much cheaper than a new car.

An instruction course was needed on how to use the thing.

This past Saturday, Sweet Man had some free time to work on installing it in the car. The girls were so excited. Not only do I have all of my girls in the same row of the car, I also have two empty seats in the back that can be used, if one feels inclined to make enough effort to get back there.

My mom and I were the first ones to try it out. We took my parents to see a live nativity and the festival of Lights this past Sunday.  We let the men set up front. God made women more flexible you know...in more ways than one ;-) Just kidding of course.

 Enjoying the hot cocoa.

 My Sweet Dad and Mom!

 Sadie showing us that she thinks it's  entirely to cold.

My girls know that Santa is not real. It was hard to keep the meaning of Christmas centered on Christ, when they thought this big guy would be bringing them gifts. Gifts that  their mom and dad couldn't afford. Gifts that he got all of the credit for......but they still enjoy sitting on his lap and getting the free candy cane!

So I guess I got a new car for Christmas. I am very excited about it. I don't understand what all the hype is about this "new car smell though"....I think it still smells pretty gross! :-)

The back up plan!

Did you know that it is only 12 days to Christmas??!!! Well, even if I did know, by 10:00 a.m. I had been reminded numerous times by three little girls.

We had a fun day planned with my sister-in-law coming over with her little crew of five. Even though the weather was so beautiful today......

 It did not permit driving on back country roads.

The girls were quite bummed to not be able to have a play date. Now that could have spelled disaster and foul moods all day...but I had a back up plan. 

We painted....

We made marshmallow pops...

We made Christmas soap.....

Doesn't it kind of look like Jello gone wrong? It smells heavenly though. Vanilla Pomegranate!  

We worked on some Christmas baskets...

And since man can't live by bread alone....

We made soup to go with it! :-) 

You mean you don't always have a back up plan?? You simply must or everyone might just go stir crazy and lay around like this all day :-0

Seasons......

I was enjoying my cup of coffee this morning with my dog, when the strangest thing happened. Well, two strange things happened. First off, I am now aware that dogs pass gas.....it can be loud too! I don't know why I never realized that it was a possibility before. The funny thing is, she seemed just as shocked  about it as I was. It seemed to me like she kept looking at me asking "was that you, or me?"...I assure you, it was not I!

Oh yeah, the other strange thing. Before all of the noisy interruptions, I was spending some quiet time with God, when a fly landed on my chair. Now, in the spring and summer that would not be odd at all, but this time of year we don't have flies in the house. It got me to thinking about Summer and now that it isn't here I miss it so much. I miss the warm sunshine. The days of playing outside. The working in the garden and being able to send the girls out to "pick" our lunch. During summer time, though, I start to long for winter. A time of resting, not only for us but for the ground, too. Now all of this thinking about actual seasons led my brain to the seasons of our life.

I can remember when I still had little toddlers in the house crawling around and getting into EVERYTHING, and how exhausted I was. I remember overhearing a conversation at church with an older lady, saying how she missed those times. Times of having little hand prints on the wall. Times of her little one needing help with something. She was lonely. She was looking back on a season of her life and she missed it. I remember praying that the Lord would help me to not wish away any season of my life, but to help me find joy in it. That can be hard sometimes. I so desperately wanted to be able to take a walk by myself. Go to the store. Maybe even have time to fix my hair. :-0

My girls are nowhere near grown, but I can see the change already starting. They are more of a help to me now than ever before. I can ask them to dust the house, and they'll do it. They can really help out in the kitchen and with cleaning their room. Those things are great, but the one change that I am cherishing the most right now is seeing their little personalities developing. We are having real conversations together, something that I didn't see coming. They are teaching me things about life and God that no book ever could.  Where did the time go? Did I hold them enough when they were little? Did I cherish the midnight feeding? No, probably not. I was just trying to survive them I think. ;-) 

I was thankful for that fly this morning. I didn't even swat at him. God used that fly to remind me to slow down, and be thankful for each season. To not long to much for summer when I am in winter. To not wish away the mundane things of this life, for when we look back we realize how special they really were!

P.S. Imagine my surprise today when the devotion for our women's party was on "seasons of our life"!!

All about Fun!!

If I had to sum this day up in words, it would have to be called  "All about fun." We started our morning off with a co-op field trip to an inflatable gym called...... you guessed it... All about Fun.

We were just giddy with excitement!

 To throw caution to the wind...

 And just enjoy being young and full of energy!

 Our hearts were so full of love for "new" blessings...

 And for not so "new" ones too :-)

 To be able to sit in a group with special friends, and share parts of our lives together is priceless.

 We got to "practice" our crocheting just a wee bit....

 And tell some really exciting stories too.

A very special friend, generously gave me SEVERAL bags of clothes for the girls. That in itself is super fun. When we came home it was a free for all, of trying on clothes and cleaning out their old stained clothes, to make room for the "new" ones. Isn't is great how the Lord provides for all things?!

Hope thinks so too! This is one of the dresses that she claimed. 

We are having our Women's Christmas party at church tomorrow morning with a cookie exchange. I needed a new recipe. One that has something different. One that I haven't tried before. I decided on Cranberry, Pistachio, chocolate chunk cookies. They looked pretty yummy, but shelling all of those pistachios can get old fast. Not to worry. I have help!!

We mixed all of the ingredients, and with the green nuts and red berries they look quite festive.

Here they are rolled  into logs to rest in the fridge for a bit...

And of course we needed to do our gingerbread house!

Ok, so we actually did this last night, you didn't think I was super mom did you? One can only have so much fun in one day ya know ;-)

A day of crafting in the kitchen

Christmas is speeding up on me fast. Without tons of extra cash stuffed under our couch cushions (you don't even want to know what stuffed under those things ;-) handmade gifts are the way to go. I love to receive handmade gifts, but I enjoy making them so much more. I think a basket of homemade goodies is so special. The girls wanted to get in on all of this handmade goodness, so I have been racking my brain, trying to think of fun easy things they can do. Some things, I like to do all alone though....so as soon as I got them started on their school work, I got to work in the kitchen. I made One pan granola.

My house smells so wonderful right now. You have to sniff  REALLY hard to know that the dogs are in here right now!! :-)

1 cup coconut oil

1 cup honey

1/2 cup water

2 teaspoons vanilla   Heat these ingredients until warm and thinned.

Add 6 cups rolled oats

1 cup almond flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup wheat germ

1/2 cup mixed sunflower seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds etc.

1/2 cup dry milk powder

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup mixed nuts

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Bake at 250 degrees for 2 hours, stirring every 20 minutes. When cooled add dried fruit. 

This goes so yummy on top of yogurt and ice cream, or in a bowl of almond milk with cut up bananas. Boy I'm hungry! :-)

After school we decided to finally get around to making our Christmas countdown paper chain.

 This will be ever so helpful since the girls ask EVERY morning, "how many days till Christmas now?" I will have one girl tear a ring off each day to show how many days are left.

 Grace was right at "the best part" of her book and asked if she could skip the activity. Don't ya just love a good book? :-)

After lunch we started working on one of the presents they will be giving away. Crayons. No, not boring crayons in a box. Homemade designer crayons!

 We had to take the wrappers off of our old broken crayons...

Sort into new color creations.....

 Popped them into the oven at 170 degrees for around 20 minutes or so. After they cooled down a bit, we stuck them in the freezer for a few minutes so they could easily be popped out of the mini muffin tin.

 TADAA.....new crayons that not only are the girls super excited to give away, it gave us a LONG afternoon activity. We stayed in one room most of the day, so you know what that means, only one room to clean up!!

 Part of the fun of Christmas, is the getting ready for it, and today was no exception. We made memories and frugal gifts all at the same time!