Giveaway Alert!

Modern Molly Mormon- http://modernmollymormon.blogspot.com/- is doing a giveaway with Shelf Reliance! They are giving a Cansolidator (oh how I wish it was a Harvest system) away. Head on over and check it out!

Insomnia = Blogging?

Is it because my sleep this week has been so erratic that it's now become habit? Is it because I have children that are light sleepers and I *love* seeing how many creaks I can make in the floor before they wake up? Is it because we have an extraordinarily crappy mattress? Is it because there just aren't enough hours in the day? (Maybe!) Or is it because it's the only time in a 24-hour period that I don't have anyone clamoring for a piece of me? Ding, ding, ding!!! We have a winner!

This has been a week from you-know-where. Last weekend Tom came down with crud in his chest and Monday morning woke up gasping for breath and making me think he was dying in general. I took him to the doctor that afternoon, because he insisted on waiting to see if he felt any better by lunchtime, where they ran a flu test (negative), a strep test (negative) and then sent him over to the hospital for x-rays to see if he had pneumonia (also negative). In the mean time, our wonderful elderly neighbor was at home with the kids (who had interrupted their Family Home Evening to come over). While Tom was finishing up I dashed back home to let the neighbor go and be there when the rest of the Primary presidency got to my house for our meeting! They stay with the kids while I go back and pick up Tom.

Tuesday he's still no better and I'm signed up to volunteer at the book fair going on at the twins' school. Wednesday he's worse so I take him back to the doctor while the Tank and the Bug are at Mom's Day Out. There they hook him up to saline, a breathing treatment and a shot of steroids. And oh, yeah he's been having some heart palpitations so they do an EKG on him. I get back from picking up the kids when he tells me that the EKG was abnormal and the hospital was sending an ambulance over to pick him up right away! I scramble to get the kids taken care of, dropping the younger two off at a friends' house and arranging for Tweedledum and Tweedledee to ride the bus home with a friend. Thinking my husband is dying and envisioning what my future beholds as a widowed mother of four young children, I get back over to the hospital where my MIL meets me in the waiting room and tells me it was a false alarm!!! Yeah, no one at the doctor's office thought that administering an EKG after a nebulizer and steroids would have any effect. Finally, someone prescribes him an antibiotic for his BRONCHITIS! So, after MIL thanked Tom for the afternoon off I take Tom home and then begin picking up the kids and realize that oh, yeah! we have soccer practice in 45 minutes. Would other moms have blown off soccer?

Thursday I'm in recovery mode running more trips to the store for clam chowder ("the good kind!") and what?! our bank account is overdrawn?! Get that taken care of and am grateful for once that we have a credit card *for emergencies* so I'm able to go to the store. Tweedledum and Tweedledee tell me when they are home from school that I have misread ALL of the notes sent home from the school and the Easter Egg Hunt is Tomorrow, not next week when we won't be here so now I have to go to the store, again, and get 12 eggs and something that's not candy to put in them. The dollar store in out of eggs but has good fillers so I get those and head over to WallyWorld to get the eggs and run into tons of people, get in the sloooooowest express lane which has given me time to realize I still haven't submitted my homework for the week so now I have that to look forward to when I get back instead of my bed.

Today I'm still in recovery mode because lo and behold, I'm PMS-ing! But I did get the girls' Easter dresses finished and have made way in the novel I'm reading.

Am I complaining? Heck yeah! Do I feel bad about it? Heck no! I don't think I complain about everything that's on my plate very often. BTW, we got Buster back last week and betwixt everything else I've been chasing him down because there are two dogs across the street that he thinks are his best friends and while writing this post I was interrupted by a child with a sore throat in need of medicine.


Can I go back to bed now?

Other yummies

I discovered a quick way to make garlic breadsticks. They are NOT as good as The Olive Garden but my kids devoured them and they looked very pretty next to my spaghetti and meatballs.

Step 1: Buy Pillsbury Pizza Crust dough

Step 2: Unroll dough and cut into strips.















Step 3: Twist strips and after placing on baking sheet, brush with garlic butter. Bake them for a couple of minutes LESS than what the package says.
















Aren't they pretty?

Dee-lish!

I was perusing some of my favorite sites this morning and found these fantastic recipes. Amazingly enough, I actually had everything on hand to make them. Thank you food storage!!! I had just made my own chicken stock yesterday and this was the perfect venue to try it out. Enjoy!

White Chili from http://everydayfoodstorage.net

1 C. Chopped Onion (1/4 C. dehydrated onions)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 t. ground cumin
1 t. dried oregano, crushed
1/4 t. ground red pepper
3 15 1/2-ounce cans great northern (white) beans, drained and rinsed (1 lb. (2-1/2 C.) dried white beans, cooked and rinsed)
2 4-ounce cans diced green chile peppers
4 C. chicken broth
3 C. chopped cooked chicken (3 10 oz. cans of chicken-you can also use the water from the can as part of your chicken broth)
2 C. shredded Monterey Jack cheese (8ounces)
Sour Cream
1. In a 3 1/2 to 6-quart slow cooker place the onion, garlic, cumin, oregano, red pepper, beans 2 cans chile peppers, broth and cooked chicken. Stir to combine.
2. Cover and cook on low heat setting for 7 to 8 hours or on high-heat setting for 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Stir in the cheese until melted.

Better Than Jiffy Cornbread Recipe (from http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/):

Grind: ½ cup of popcorn kernels to make ¾ cup cornmeal
Combine: ¾ c. cornmeal, 1 ¼ c. flour (I used whole wheat), ¼ c. sugar, 2 tsp. baking powder, ½ tsp. salt
Add: 1 c. milk, ¼ c. veg. oil, 1 large egg, beaten; stir until dry ingredients are moist
Bake: At 400 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean

Giveaway Alert!

There's a giveaway at a fantastic homeschooling blog that I found. The giveaway is for the Itty-Bitty Bookworm curriculum. That's right, an entire curriculum. This is literary activity curriculum for kids ages 18 months- 5 years. I'm so excited to know about it! Head on over to http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/ to see examples of the lesson plans and to enter yourself a chance to win it.

For every Sister out there

Someone in my homeschooling group sent this to everyone and I just had to share it with you all. So beautiful and inspiring.

Just gotta do it....

I feel this is the only way to positively express my outrage at the whole situation with HBO.