Tidbits of Wisdom

If you hear a little Taz voice saying, "Ready, Set, GO!!" followed by peals of laughter, coming from the bathroom, you may just find yourself a wee little mess of hand soap squirted all over the counter, the floor, and on the hands and clothes of Taz. And, if the moment you walk in to the bathroom, Taz throws himself on the floor in a fit of laughter and glee, you will know that it is time to put new jammies on him and to put the little hyena to bed.

If you hear a little girl say "I'm so tired" at 6:30, walk over to the couch, lay down, pull the blanket up and say, "I want to go to sleep", you will know that it is time to put the sweet girl to bed.

If you turn around and another little girl is standing at the door, lower lip out, shaking, and looking forlorn, and when you ask her what's wrong, she says, "I... I don't KNOW! I just... I think I just want... to... CUDDLE!!!", and then bursts in to tears, you will know that it is time to put her to bed.

And then after an extended cuddle-fest, you will put them all to bed and smile.

Because it's only 7:30PM, and all your children are fast asleep.

If all three of the above scenarios happen within 15 minutes of each other, all before 7:00PM, you will THEN know that they stayed out REALLLLLLLLY late last night having fun with Auntie Dawn and Uncle Lee (While Mom and Dad had a cozy alone-night IN eating Carne Asada Tacos a la Jenny...)

Yerrrr the BEST-y.

Playin' catch-up

Life is so good.

Even when we're going at breakneck speed, God is gracious to me.

Even when I'm stressed (over something big, or something stupid), God gives me grace.

I'm thankful for that.

Can I tell you about my new fun thing I'm doing?? So I mentioned before that I was looking for a job, and I found it! In my basement!

Really.

We have a Mother-in-Law apartment kind of set up in the basement of our house, and my mom lives with us. She has this little Ebay business where she buys women's clothing at thrift stores and garage sales, and resells them on Ebay. So with my help, we're doubling her output of items for sale, and I have an instant job!

It's great, because I can work at whatever hours I want (often after bedtime, during naptime, video time, etc...), and it's completely flexible. It's also great because part of my job is... shopping!! Am I lucky or what??

It's not all roses and chocolates, though, because I have this thing called a Taz who happens to come with me to shop pretty often. Taz has this little habit of being a ter.ri.ble. shopper. He has learned nothing from his big sisters who, from a very young age learned the love and art of thrift store shopping.

They would sit in their little carts and eat an apple for an hour. If they got fussy, I'd hand them a hanger and they'd play with that for a while. They were just a little bit heavenly. As they got older, they would flip through the clothes, just like I do, and hold the dresses up to themselves, twirl around, and choose which ones were their favorites.

Taz? Not so much. I have discovered one trick: food. Problem is, it lasts a mere 15 minutes, and then he's bored and full. His idea of shopping is climbing through the clothes and "hiding" from me. At home, it's really cute to see two little feet sticking out from underneath my curtains, while he's hiding from us. It's a game we've played. I've encouraged it. He cracks himself up, it's completely cute.

But not so cute at the store when I can't see his feet and he's crawled 15 feet through dirty women's clothes, where he's sitting on the floor hiding, in the midst of long flowing THRIFT STORE DRESSES with who-knows-what in and on them. Gag me.

Picture me, shouting, "Isaac! Isaac!" as I wade through racks of women's clothing, looking for my "lost" child. The looks I've gotten have been a bit sharp.

So, we have a bit of work to do to perfect the "Taz WILL learn to love shopping" training regimen. Any tips from you die-hard shopper mommies would be welcome.

So, overall, this explains my breakneck speed... we do what God calls us to do, and I'm learning to be content in my situation, to have fun with it, to Praise God in all of the craziness. He is a gracious God.

As you might have guessed, I'm ditching Foody Friday. I can't keep up with it. If you want to adopt it, let me know! It's yours. I'm sure I'll post some if someone else wanted to host it, so if you're interested, let me know.

I'll close with a little 6-year old conundrum:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. A simple command, right? What if what you would have them do unto you is to NOT do something? Then it's DON'T do unto others what you would NOT have them do unto you. So if your brother pours water over your head, and you DON'T want him to do that, then, according to this clear charge, you should...? Well, pour water over HIS head, right??

"But, Mommy! You said, 'Do unto others...'"

"YES, Do to them what you want them to do to you. You don't want him to do that, so don't do it to him!"

"But it says, 'DO unto others'. It's so confusing, Mommy. I don't get it!"

(Continue conversation ad nauseum for 10 minutes)

"Forget it. Pouring water on someone's head is mean. Taz, please don't do that. Corene, please don't do that."

"Oooooooooh! OK, Mommy!"

My Brain! It is FULL!!

I could tell you about what I've been thinking about MMS (Martyr Mom Syndrome).

I could tell you about what I've been thinking about re: entitlement. That's deep. Can't go there tonight.

I could tell you how incredibly, disgustingly messy my house is right now.

And how, somehow, I don't care.

I could tell you what fabulous parents and in-laws I have and how much they bless me.

Or I could tell you about my new fun job.

Or, I could tell you that I do NOT currently suffer from Martyr Mom Syndrome and that I'm NOT going to go clean my house. I could also tell you that instead of finishing this post, I am going to go take a bubble bath by candlelight.

I guess that's what I'll tell you. I need to go empty my brain.

Catch ya later, when my thoughts aren't nice little bullet points, flying at me like I'm in a Star Wars simulator.

The many faces of fall

There was much work to be done...


My kids are always very serious about their work...

Some might call it child labor...

But we make him forget about soaking his parents in that lawsuit...


He wouldn't SUE us, would he??

NAH...

It was 100% fun.

Foody Friday - Freezer Meals

First off, I know you want the candy update. Remember my promise of no-candy-by-Nov.3?

Failed.

We still have candy.

However, it is disappearing quickly and the plan still seems to be a good one. My new hope is that by the end of the weekend, it will be gone.

Really.

OK, onto more important business. You might be wondering if maybe I should change the name of this blog to "A Litte talk" since I haven't been too talkative lately.

I've had a few people ask me if we're doing ok, and I assure you -- we're fine. We're actually doing really well, but blogging just hasn't been high on my priority list lately.

Part of it is that along with the rest of our fine country, our little pie slice of the economy is in a financial meltdown, and so a good portion of my free time has been spent looking for additional income opportunities, as well as penny pinching, which has been a bit time consuming (And FUN! Y'all, it's fun. Most of the time.)

My current work project is also fun, and demands a whole post of it's own, which will be forthcoming.

The bottom line is that I'm working after bedtime, and therefore blogging has been relegated to a lower priority. Humph. !! :)

In the spirit of our busy life, freezer meals are my best friend. Especially in the winter when fresh food isn't quite as plentiful, having meals ready to go in my freezer is awesome.

There are so many ways to approach this, and I will briefly touch on two ways:

A) Simply double/triple your meals you are already making, and freeze leftovers. This takes only a small amount of extra time, and it's fabulous home cooked food without the work later on. Many many dishes are suitable for freezing: soups, casseroles, quiche, fillings for tacos/burritos, etc... no special recipes necessary, just a little bit of planning.

B) Buy a book that has freezer-specific recipes, and set out to batch cook, tripling recipes, and have a "day of cooking". This could be great done with friends. I have a couple of freezer meal cookbooks, but my favorite is "Don't Panic- Dinner's in the Freezer". I have used many recipes from this book.


Here is one of my favorite recipes from that book (this recipe is for one batch, easily doubled or tripled):

Chimichangas

1t salt
2lbs lean ground beef or ground turkey
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2t ground cumin
2t oregano
1/2 cup canned green chiles, chopped
1/2 cup taco sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup cider vinegar

Serving day
1 cup butter or margarine, melted
9 7-inch flour tortillas

Cooking day instructions
Sprinkle salt in a medium skillet. Place over medium heat. Add beef garlic, and spices. Cook until meat loses pinkness. Stir in remaining ingredients. Remove from heat and cool. Freeze meat mixture in a freezer bag or container.

Serving day instructions
In 8-inch skillet, melt butter or margarine. Dip both sides of 1 tortilla into butter; drain off excess. (alternately: spray both sides of tortilla with olive oil cooking spray, or skip the fat altogether by simply warming in the microwave) Mound 1/3 cup thawed filling on center of tortilla. Fold tortilla in envelope fashion. Place seam side down in ungreased 11x7 baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas and filling.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Bake until crispy, about 15 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and return for a few seconds. Top with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, and additional sour cream.

Yum.

Please, join in below if you have a freezer-suitable meal to share!