January is a long month

I found this old post in my drafts folder. This was back before we all got sick in early February. Thought I'd go ahead and post it.

I have no idea why it is so hard to keep up with this blog. Oh wait -- yes, I do. Pretty much every time I sent down to update, I am needed elsewhere. And for important things -- a baby needs feeding, a newly-potty trained son needs his bottom wiped, food needs to be prepared...the list goes on. But I do miss having a regular account of our weeks, so I will keep trying.

This month has seemed extra long for some reason. I have to say I'm glad it's about to end. Nothing bad has happened, it's just been very busy and February brings us one month closer to summer and a less hectic schedule.

This last week was very full. Aiden had his regular Cub Scout meeting one night, had to go turn in his Pinewood Derby car another night, and then had the actual race on still another night. He was thrilled to bring home a trophy for most original design.

Conner and Chase have both bowled on the Thornton high school bowling team this year. They had their final tournament of the year today. So that's one less thing on our schedule.

Brenna had two babysitting jobs -- she is saving up for an Ipod Touch and hopes to have enough to buy it in the next couple of months.

On Thursday night, we took Chase to an open house at Warren Tech. He is very interested in their culinary arts program. He can start taking courses there his junior year and register as early as next March, so we wanted to check it out. He liked what he saw, so that's the plan for now.

Liam started crawling this week! I am not quite ready for that. But I don't get much say in it. I plan to do another post on just him.

Zane and Declan are still going to Cherub Choir and love it. They get so excited when Tuesday morning comes around. I love that when I drop them off, several teachers say hello to them and comment on what good boys they are.

catchin' up

Last week seemed incredibly long for some reason. Maybe because the hustle and bustle of Christmas was gone, or because we went back to our normal routine, for the most part. Whatever - by Friday, I was toast.

Last week we read "Grandfather's Journey" from Five in a Row and we are continuing with it this week. I didn't feel like we accomplished everything I had wanted to. We did talk a lot about Japan and found this neat website that is interactive. The boys enjoyed learning about the inside of a Japanese house. They also learned a little origami. They made a dog fairly easily, but the rest were a bit more complicated. I checked out a book at the library over the weekend and plan to have them try even more shapes.

We talked a lot about where Japan is located and traced the grandfather's route from Japan to California and discussed methods of transportation. We also looked at books that showed kimonos and Japanese foods. This is a fun book that ties in "How My Parents Learned to Eat" about an American man and Japanese woman learning the foods from each other's culture.

I took them on Friday on a field trip of sorts. We visited the Ocean Pacific Marketplace. This is a big Asian marketplace that sells a massive variety of foods. Per the online reviews I read, I bought a couple large sandwiches from the counter for lunch. We weren't 100% sure what was in them, but they were very good. :) All of us except Zane & Declan really liked them. And at least they tried it.

For dinner, we picked out several Japanese foods to try. Then we just ate buffet-style. I want to do more research and try different things next time. They also had a large selection of Indian foods which we all love. May have to do an Indian-themed night soon!

Conner was gone all week at the Passion conference in Atlanta. He went with the college-age group at our church and had an amazing time. He came home on Friday and I loved hearing all about it. I can tell he really was touched by his time there. He has a lot of thinking to do about what he wants next year to look like after he graduates. He has mentioned mission trips, which I think would be incredible, but we'll see where God leads him. It's so amazing to see my little boy becoming an adult -- and one I really like to be around! :)

In other news, we had a rough week emotionally with my nieces. But God has been so faithful to put people in my path who help remind me of the importance of what we're doing and to not give up. Friday was my youngest niece's birthday -- she turned 7. I made her choice for breakfast and she took cookies to school for her class. After school, she opened her presents from us and then went to her dad's for the weekend. I think she had a good birthday, I hope so.

The weekend passed by in a blur and another week is here. I hope to work on some more decluttering and continue the organizing kick I've been on.

Recipes

Just wanted to list a few recipes I've really liked recently so they're all in one place.

Sunday we went to a friend's house and needed to bring something in the slow cooker. I had a stockpile of barbecue sauce from a recent sale and some chicken breasts in the freezer so I made this Zesty Slow Cooker Chicken Barbecue .

It was really good and I've been eating the leftovers for lunch each day. I did make a few changes: I used Sweet Baby Ray's sauce, but since I don't like my BBQ too sweet, I added lots of seasonings to taste, a couple teaspoons of Liquid Smoke and a few dashes of Frank's hot sauce. I can't wait to make it again, this time paired with Melissa D'Arabian's Fennel and Cabbage Slaw.

I am usually not a big cole slaw person but I looove this recipe. Again, because it's not too sweet.

I also took this as an appetizer. Soooo yummy and super easy. It can be made the night before.

This is my current favorite muffin recipe. Cappuccino muffins.....it is so, so good. Make it immediately. Seriously.

I made these muffins at Christmas and also used the same recipe to make little bread loaves for friends. Yummo!

I will be adding more recipes as I can. I love trying out new ones and so do my kids.

Baby food evolved

A friend recently told me about a new kind of baby food. (At least new since my last baby). It is all organic and comes in little pouches. I bought a couple for Liam, along with the traditional jars, back when we first started him on solids. We soon noticed he loooved the pouches and loathed the jars. So that's all I buy him now. There are the basics like these:

You just rip the pouch open and feed them like you would from a jar.

And then there are these pouches with the squeeze top. These will be great to keep in the diaper bag when we're on the go. But right now Liam can't figure out the squeezing part, so we just spoon feed him.

There are some really creative combinations like banana, beet and blueberries. Liam especially likes that one. The older kids wanted to taste it last night and all said it was actually very good. (Except Brenna who doesn't like bananas).

And some really, really creative combos like spinach, apples and rutabaga. He hasn't tried that one yet.

I love that they sneak in a veggie or two with the fruit. Now the pouches ARE more expensive than the jars. Around $1.00-1.50 each, depending on which brand you buy. Target has a few different brands and lots of variety. It's worth the extra cost for me to know he will eat them and he's getting more veggies.

Planning

I always love the first week of the year. New calendars make me happy. ;) Usually I have purchased one by about oh, say, October. Not this year. I finally bought one last week. Just in the nick of time. I also usually spend time looking around for just the right one, but owing to the time crunch, this time I just picked one out of those available on Targets end cap. It's this one.

The funny thing is I got it home and started writing in everybody's birthdays. Then I wanted to add activities, so I got out my little calendar I carry with me. It's this one. I never even noticed I had picked out the exact same design. I must really like it, though, to have chosen it twice. ;)

Today was kind of a slow, rolling start to getting back into our normal routine. My nieces break was ove so I had to get up early to get them to school, but I'm not starting school with my kids until tomorrow. Scott was also off work today so another reason to delay school. He very sweetly did some "honey-do"s for me, as well as a few things on his own list.

I went through my coupon box, throwing out all those that expired in 2011. I heard there were some great coupons in Sunday's paper but ours somehow disappeared. The 3 and 4 year olds usually bring the newspaper in and today they brought me Saturday's and today's. And Sunday's was nowhere to be found. :( So I sent Scott to the store to see if they had any left. He found two and brought them home. And they had not. one. coupon. I was so bummed. Maybe tomorrow I'll try another store and hope I can find some. So frustrating that I cleaned out my coupon box and was all set to fill it back up and start stockpiling again and now my plans were thwarted. Patience is not one of my strongest virtues. haha

I also printed out a few different to-do lists to try out and see which one will work for me. Tomorrow I'm trying this one . Also found some great meal planners on Pinterest. I can spend waaay too long on that site. I'm hoping to start making more freezer meals. This burrito recipe looks really good. I think I'll try it out on Sunday.


Conner is in Atlanta this week, attending Passion . I'm excited for him, I know it will be an amazing experience for him, but I sure do miss him! I can't wait to hear all about it when he gets back.

Well, another early morning tomorrow so off to bed I go.

Welcome 2012

Well, here's an easy and obvious resolution for the new year: blog more often! :) I really let it go this last year and I regret that. It's so important to record those important events that happen and even the mundane, everyday things. So here's a start anyway.

We all slept in this morning after staying up late to ring in the new year. Or most of us, anyway. Liam was awake and hungry right at 6am. But he went back to sleep by 7, so I did too! :) I put a chicken in the crockpot and made up some appetizers, then later in the day we went to a friend's house. We had a really good time there and a few of us popped over to the hospital to visit a friends recovering from surgery.

We had to make it an early night, as my nieces have school tomorrow. So we came home and I gave the little boys their bath while Scott went to pick up the girls. Now most the kids are tucked into their beds and I'm just waiting for Liam to get tired! Scott is off one more day which I'm really grateful for.

I'm excited to do some planning tomorrow and jump into the coming year.