Happy Birthday Phoebe

Phoebo-licious turned three today. We had cinnamon rolls, sang "Happy Birthday", went to church, ate at "Beans" (her choice), and had an ice-cream birthday bash. (Hopefully I'll get that post up later this week!) It was a great day to spend with my very new three-year-old, even though I'm a little sad to say good-bye to my sweet two-year-old baby.

Here's to hoping it's a wonderful year!

A Pink Cupcake

I sent these cupcakes to school for snack today to celebrate Phoebe's birthday. Unfortunately she stayed home because she spent last night and this morning throwing up. And the cotton candy "fluff" (while oh-so-cute and whimsical) melted about 30 minutes after I put it on the cupcakes. Sigh. Eli declined taking one in his lunchbox stating they were "too pink" for the kindergarten lunch table. Not too pink, though, to make sure I saved one for an afternoon snack!

Now you'll have to excuse me while I spend the next two days getting ready for the big three-year-old ice cream bash and frantically watching the weather to see if it's going to get snowed out.

Fun times, folks. Fun times.

A Fact Of Life

It is an inevitable fact of life that all women turn into their mothers.

For some, it's something that keeps them up at night and gives them gray hairs just thinking about it. For others, it's not so bad and they shrug their shoulders and move on with life.

Like I did last Sunday morning when my mom and I both got dressed for church.


We matched. From our red necklaces to our ruffled, high-waisted black dresses to our comfortable (but oh-so-cute) black round-toed shoes.

I have seen the future and it doesn't look so bad. Not bad at all.

I love you, Mom.

Today Is...

National Pancake Day!

To celebrate we had pancakes for breakfast. I'd have them for dinner, but Brad does not like BFD (Breakfast For Dinner). Sometimes I wonder why I didn't know this about him before we got married, but it just wasn't a part of our pre-marital counseling. I think I'm going to start a support group. We could meet on Tuesday nights at IHop. Oh, and he also doesn't like mushrooms. That support group will meet at my house on Thursdays and we will eat THIS and THIS.

In honor of National Pancake Day, I'm going to post not one, not two, but THREE pancake recipes. The first was my grandmother's (my dad's mom) recipe. She never measured anything, so one time (long before I was born) my mom and her sis-in-law had her make it and measured the ingredients as she went along. I'm so glad they did, but it has spoiled me to homemade pancakes and I have a hard time eating pancake mix from a box. The second is a whole grain pancake recipe from my sis-in-law. The third is an oatmeal pancake recipe that my mom found years ago in an Alpha-Bits Kids cookbook. (I've posted it before, but it needs re-posting because it is just so darn yummy!)

Memaw's Griddle Cakes
1 1/4 cup flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoons salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter, melted

Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Beat egg and add milk. Stir into dry ingredients and mix well. Add melted butter and stir. Use a serving spoon to ladle onto hot griddle. Flip when pancake is bubbly and cooked around edges. Serve with butter and syrup.

Note: We do not like big pancakes at our house. I like to make smaller pancakes (a little bigger than silver dollar pancakes) so we can stack them up like Little Babaji. Plus, a stack of pancakes is just prettier than one big one. I use the serving spoon that came with my flatware to measure out my pancakes.

Minnesota Sarah's Whole Grain Pancakes:
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup wheat bran
2 tablespoons flax seed
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk (regular milk will work fine, too)
2 tablespoons melted butter

You know the drill-Mix dry ingredients. Add buttermilk,egg, and melted butter and stir until well blended. Cook on a hot griddle. Serve with honey or butter and syrup.

Oatmeal Pancakes:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon of sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg

Beat all ingredients with a spoon. Cook on a hot griddle. Serve with applesauce or butter and syrup.

The pancakes in the picture above were made from Memaw's Griddle Cake recipe. My old stand-by. I meant to use THIS handy-dandy tool to make letters, but I forgot. I'll use it next time, for sure!

I have to give a shout-out to Old Man Weather for making this National Pancake Day possible. It snowed (again) about 4 inches last night and school doesn't start until 9:30 this morning. Gives us time to enjoy a nice leisurely morning -- full of pancakes-- without completely messing up my entire day. I have a TON of birthday errands to run and "neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night" shall keep me from it!

Happy National Pancake Day!

My Weekend In Pictures

We went to Abilene this to visit my grandparents and Sing Song. My parents, my sister and her family, and my brother and his wife met us there and we had a great weekend. Here's a summary in pictures.

Friday night (late)...that's why I look so tired!


Saturday at the creek.




Don't ask.


Celebrating February birthdays.



Cousin pictures.




Sunday.



(Phoebe is not in this picture because she was throwing a hissy fit.)

As usual, the weekend just flew by and left me wishing we just had one more day to visit and laugh and play.

At least Spring Break is around the corner.

My Egg Cup Collection

Several years ago (right before I got married, I think), my mom and I were wandering through an antique store and I stumbled upon the sweetest, inexpensive little egg cup I had ever seen. I'm not sure what about it appealed to me. Maybe it was the nostalgia of a piece of pottery that no one uses anymore. Or maybe it was the dainty-ness of the little chick. Or maybe it was the chips and scrapes indicative of it's well-loved former life. Or maybe a combination of all three. Whatever the reason, I scooped it up and took it home.

From then on, I was hooked. I started to look for egg cups everywhere. I don't like to spend more than $10 on each one and it has to "speak" to me in some way. Sometimes I'll find several in a few months and then it will be a year (or more) before I find another one to add to my collection. A few have been broken, but since they weren't expensive it wasn't too big a loss, and they've been displayed a few different ways in all the different houses we've lived in.

This is what they look like now. The white box on the bottom right is actually from the Edwards Bottling Co. in Amarillo, Texas. Cool, huh?


Here's the little guy that started this little passion of mine.


Eli painted this one for me the Christmas of 2005. I'll probably cry if this ever gets broken.


This one was found in Abilene. My mom has her sister at her house.


A few "close-ups" of each of my boxes. There's still room for a few more. And I can always add some more boxes! :)

The green egg cup from the previous picture used to sit on the right hand side of the box below. Unfortunately, the box has a big warp on that side and the cup was always at risk for slipping off so I moved him. I'm trying to convince myself that the lopsided look was intentional. It's not working yet.




Grandma and Grandpa are my latest additions.


I found them by surprise on etsy while looking for pincushions. (By the way, that etsy is a dangerous place! I could spend a small fortune there at any given moment.) They have vintage pins stuck in their pincushion heads! Sewing + egg cups + vintage = IRRESISTIBLE! With the shipping, I ended up paying a little more for them than my $10 budget, but I thought they were worth it. I *love* that Grandma is winking at Grandpa!

I find people's collections fascinating. It says so much about the person doing the collecting and what's important to them. There's always a reason, even if the collector can't quite articulate it.

So what do you collect and why?

Overwhelmed

Yesterday was a long day.

Brad left early in the morning for an overnight business thing. Phoebe has been fighting some kind of cruddy cough for three weeks now, one that comes with a phantom fever that comes and goes every four days or so. One that came back yesterday morning. She stayed home from school and spent the morning needing to be held or crying because she didn't feel well while we waited for our 1:30 doctor's appointment. Right in the middle of naptime. She has strep. A round of antibiotics and steroids for her cough are now sitting in my fridge.

I missed my weekly errand day, putting me behind for the week already. I didn't mop my floors because it's hard to do with a 28 lb. almost-three-year-old attached to your body. I cancelled my impromptu dinner date with another mom whose husband was also out of town and wondered what to do with the extra ball of pizza dough thawing on my kitchen cabinet.

Eli started running a fever as well about 4:30 so he spent the evening trying to get warm. (The child is cold-natured anyway and the fever gave him some serious chills!). Phoebe was down for a nap by this time so I'll be taking Eli in for his strep test later this morning. I feel sure another round of antibiotics will soon join the first.

I tried to work on my quilt that I'm making for Phoebe's big girl bed and broke the needle.

Right after dinner, Phoebe stopped up the toilet with an entire roll of toilet paper. At least, that's what I think she used because I wasn't in there with her. I was upstairs trying to help Eli get dressed between chattering teeth and achy joints after his shower. Called my brother-in-law and the crisis was averted. The toilet is still stopped up, but at least it's not overflowing. I found the plunger (after texting Brad because I had no idea where it was!), but apparently lack the proper plunging skills because it's still not flushing.

Then I remember that today is my dad's birthday and I've forgotten to call him.

I stuck Phoebe in the bath while dealing with the toilet. She pooped in the tub.

While I'm cleaning the tub, it dawns on me that Phoebe's birthday party is next weekend and I have done NOTHING. Except dream up really big, great plans that I now just have to execute (because I am just plain crazy that way). We are going to be mega-busy Thursday night through Sunday and I won't have time to work on it at all.

This is when I start to feel really overwhelmed. I mean lock-yourself-in-the-bathroom-and-sit-on-the-floor-and-cry overwhelmed.

Then I remembered an acquaintance from college, Jenny B., and the mess she's going through right now. And my friend, Betsey, who's facing some serious, life-changing decisions. And my friend, Michelle, whose Marine husband is on a year-long deployment.

And I was overwhelmed at how ungrateful and spoiled I am.

While I have walked through some yucky stuff (who hasn't?), I am here. I am here to worry about birthday parties and doctor appointments and stopped up toilets. I am here to spend my days with a husband I am blessed to be married to. I am here to raise my children. I am here with the opportunity to screw them up (because that's what parents do...even when they mean well). I may take a medicine that has made me re-define what normal feels like and makes me conscious of my mortality every day. But I am here. By the grace of God who has called me to be a part of His Kingdom.

So I took a deep breath and turned on the Olympics. I made hot, gooey cinnamon rolls out of my thawed pizza dough (they were decadent...just like THESE) and read Frog and Toad All Year to my children in front of the fireplace.

Overwhelmed again, dear readers. Completely and embarrassingly with love and blessedness and abundance. And this time did sit down and cry.

A Cake Recipe

It's been Monday all day long around here.

Phoebe and I have gone 'round and 'round from the moment she woke up to screaming for her blanket the entire time at Wal-Mart to no nap this afternoon to an early bedtime. I cleaned poop off her walls twice and cleaned the kitchen four times today. And Eli came home complaining of a headache and a scratchy throat.

Like I said. Monday all day long.

There are no cute family stories or deep thoughts or quilt pictures to post. So I'll just leave you with a cake recipe.

I always have a recipe to share! Because when life's got you down, there will always be food. Good food and lots of it!


I made this cake last week for a function at Eli's school. It's from The Cake Mix Doctor cookbook so you know it's easy-peasy and I added the chopped up peanut butter cups on top because I had them left over from Christmas.

Chocolate Sheet Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting:
1 package (18.25 oz) plain devil's food cake mix (be sure to get the kind without pudding in the mix)
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Peanut Butter Frosting
about 10 or 12 mini peanut butter cups, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13inch baking pan. Mix together cake mix, cocoa powder, buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until thick and combined. Pour batter into pan and bake for 40-45 minutes. Cool completely. Frost with Peanut Butter Frosting and sprinkle the top with the peanut butter cups.

Peanut Butter Frosting:
1 cup peanut butter
1 stick of butter at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar*
3 to 4 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

Place peanut butter and butter in a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth and fluffy. Add powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla and blend on low until smooth. Increase speed to medium and beat until fluffy about 1 minute more. Add up to 1 tablespoon more milk if the frosting seems too thick.

* When I got ready to make this cake, I discovered I was totally out of powdered sugar. (And I know I bought powdered sugar at the store recently...it mysteriously disappeared.) I debated whether or not to run all the way back to town to buy it, and then decided since I was dropping the cake off at the office and no one would know it was mine, I could figure out a substitute. I googled for it and found out you could substitute 1 cup of granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon of cornstarch blended on high in your blender (not food processor) for every 1 cup of powdered sugar. The consistency of my finished frosting wasn't quite the same, but it was good enough for government work...and anonymous cakes.

You learn something new everyday!

Funny Things Said While We Watched The Opening Ceremonies

We decided to forgo our usual movie night to watch the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics.(How cool was it that everyone in the stands was wearing white?!) While I prefer the Summer Olympics, Brad loves the Winter Olympics. Shocking, right? Especially since Brad and I agree on sooo many things.

Brad spent most of his time in his chair looking up the different countries on Google Earth on his iPhone. I spent the evening meandering around the Internet blog-jumping. (I came across THIS blog and if you're a fan of LOST, you should read it...it's hilarious!) Eli spent the entire evening attempting to read "Frog and Toad All Year" by himself. He's did surprisingly well considering it's way over his reading level. Phoebe has wandered around all evening (in just her panties) sneaking snacks from the kitchen and cuddling with whoever's available when she wasn't.

A good time was had by all.

Over the course of our evening, we had a few funny conversations with the children I felt I should share.

During a commercial break:
Eli: Dad, fast forward it through this commercial.
Dad: I can't. It's Live TV.
Eli: Well, put it to Dead TV.

While Phoebe was eating candy conversation hearts:
Phoebe: What dit say?
Me: "You Rock"
Phoebe: I no rock. I have a rock upstairs.
Me: No. Not "You're A Rock". It's "You Rock!" (pumping fists in the air and yelling) like "You're AWESOME!"
Phoebe: (non-plussed) Oh.

Watching the "We Are The World" video:
Me: Who is that?
Brad: I don't know.
Me: Well, who is that?
Brad: I don't know.
Me: Who is that?
Brad: I don't know.
Me: Do you know who that is?
Brad: No. Do you?
Me: No. Oh wait. That's Miley Cyrus. And there's one of the Jonas Brothers.
Brad: Apparently, we only know artists from the Disney Channel.

Seriously, our Friday nights are full of wild and crazy fun.

It Sneaks Up On Me Every Year!

One might think that since Valentine's Day is always on February 14th, I might actually be prepared for it.

That's not the case. It seems that every year I'm trucking along after Christmas, enjoying the routine and "same-ness" of my days, and BAM it's Valentine's Day. Then I always spend a frantic few days rushing around trying to find fun and meaningful things for Valentine's Day wishing I had thought of a cute craft to while away an afternoon with my children.

Maybe next year.

Or not.

I did whip up some cute Valentine magnets for Phoebe's class.

I have no idea what Phoebe is doing in this picture. She was in a goofy mood and this was the best picture of the bunch!

I made these "love bugs" for Eli's MDO class when he was one and haven't done it since. (I found this picture hidden in another file earlier this week. Does anyone remember this precious baby boy?!)


I'm glad I made them even though it meant another trip to Wal-Mart this week and burning my arm with my glue gun. I'm sure I'll need to go again before Sunday. Maybe I'll even pick up some craft supplies for the kids and I.

Or maybe not.

What brilliant Valentine ideas are you doing with your family this year? I need to steal some more ideas to file away and then forget until the day before Valentine's for next year. :)

A Bittersweet Good-bye

Last week we closed on our house in town. On one hand I was happy that we weren't going to have to worry about renting it anymore (even though we had really good renters who were young gals from our church...one of them in is in our small group and she lived in Eli's bedroom so he called her "The Girl That Lives In My Room" for the longest time!) or when it was going to sell or paying two mortgages if we lost our renters. On the other hand, I was pretty sad.

This house was the first house Brad and I actually owned in our marriage. We had lived in a lovely old rent house in Lubbock (with a stainglass window depicting the address!) and it holds a special place in my heart because it's where Brad and I were first married. Then we lived in an apartment for about six months while we looked for a house here. Don't really remember much about that apartment because it's also where I spent the first trimester pregnant with Eli and when I wasn't teaching, I was sleeping! Then one Sunday afternoon after church on our way to lunch, we saw the house on the corner with a "For Sale by Owner" sign in the front yard. We called. We looked. And we fell in love. We made an offer that afternoon and within a month, we moved in.

I loved that little house with it's creaky wood floors and long, skinny living room. In the almost six years we lived there we painted almost every room (we never did paint the breezeway or the laundry room). We pulled off wallpaper in four rooms; textured, painted, and stained the kitchen; added tile and a shower to the front bathroom that only had tub; pulled up carpet and sanded and sealed wood floors; moved light fixtures from one room to the other (and almost caused a divorce in the process); and bought our first "grown-up" furniture. We brought home our sweet new babies to that house. Eli and Phoebe learned to crawl and then to walk on those old hardwood floors. We cried ourselves to sleep when we couldn't get pregnant in that house and the walls resonate with our babies first laughs and words. Over dinners we made great friends and those same friends brought us dinner after we had our babies and left us notes all over the house when I came home from my month-long stay in a Dallas hospital. We spent two years crowded into our little living room with our Huddle as freshmen and sophomores and we walked countless miles around the old tree-lined neighborhood. Every Spring we watched for the "pink tree" to bloom in the front yard and every Summer I used hot bathwater to fill up our little baby pool because our backyard was so shaded the water never got warm. We didn't just reside in that house on the corner, we lived there.

When we closed, it was like finishing the last page of a really good book. You're a little depressed that you're finished, but you'd never trade the experience. You still look forward to the next book on your nightstand (and you know it might even be better), but it's still sad to leave the old book and its characters and language and setting behind. Brad wanted to go over that afternoon and clean out the last few things out of the shed in the backyard, but I told him I couldn't go back. That door was closed...forever.

And it's not that I don't love my house now with it's great big backyard and red kitchen island. Its playroom and craftroom and the memories we are making right here right now. I'm sure when I move out of this house (when they move me to the nursing home because that's the next time I plan to move!), I'll wax poetic about the neighborhood friends the children have made, the memories of birthdays and first days of school and the laughter and heartache we experienced here.

But I'll always miss my little house in town. I'll drive by on the way to church and think about all the wonderful and not-so-wonderful things that happened to us while we lived there. I'll watch for the lilies in the front yard that we planted from Brad's great-grandmother's bulbs and the "pink tree" to blossom at the first sign of Spring. I'll see a little Eli riding his tricycle on the front sidewalk and helping Brad mow the yard. I'll remember Phoebe and her "cripple crawl" across the wood floors and how the children would watch for Brad from the glass door every day after work. I'll let my heart grieve a little for that time in our life that has passed and remember it mostly for the good times.

A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.

I Should've Just Let Them Eat Cake

Our morning did not go so well and it all started at breakfast.

I briefly considered letting the children (and myself) have a piece of the leftover cream cheese pound cake I had made for the Superbowl party on Sunday. Every once in a while we'll treat ourselves like that. Then I decided to make oatmeal instead because we'd had Cajun Chicken Pasta for dinner and it was full of white noodles and heavy cream most of which was eaten by Brad and myself because I had made it a tad too spicy for either of my children. (But, heavens to Betsey, was it good!)After telling them to "man up", I eventually just let them eat strawberries and bread for dinner. I figured breakfast needed to be chock full of whole grains and fruit. I put the oatmeal on to cook (we don't do instant oatmeal because I don't like it) and went to get the children out of bed. Eli's pants were too short and most of Phoebe's winter clothes are getting too small. While putting on her third outfit (and the one that finally fit!), the oatmeal boiled over and made a huge mess. I ran down the stairs to turn off the burner and ran back upstairs to finish getting everyone dressed. Eli couldn't find his shoes so I let him eat breakfast without them. Everybody ate breakfast...except me because I was getting lunches together that I didn't do last night because I was so tired I fell asleep on the floor in front of the fire at 7:30. From then on, it was a series of fits and time-outs and spankings and tears and rushing around like crazy people. Eli even almost went to school without shoes because he couldn't find them! I blame it all on the oatmeal.

I hate mornings like this. I try to make our mornings smooth and easy so the children are ready to start their day in a good mood ready to learn and interact with a good attitude. It's my one small way to make the world a better place...by sending my children off with full emotional buckets and ready to face the world outside our doors and brighten it for other people. Today I failed and I failed miserably. Both children cried and I was grumpy. The McCalls will not be brightening anybody's day today.

The moral of this little story? I should have let them eat cake for breakfast.

The Boss Of Everybody

At one time or another on this journey called life, we have pondered an age-old question that resonates deep in our soul asked by someone farther down that path than ourselves:


"What are you going to be when you grow up?"


For Eli, that question came Friday at school during the Kindergarten Career Parade. When the note explaining what the Career Parade was came home in his backpack a few weeks ago, I asked him said question to which he replied, "The Boss of Everybody". (Who wouldn't want to be that?) I asked him what the Boss of Everybody did and he said, "Go to meetings. Watch Surgeries. You know, like Dad."

After a few more questions, we got his costume together. Complete with Brad's old (lens-less) glasses, computer bag,...


...an iPhone (it doesn't work)


...and and "official" ID badge (that I rigged up from one of Brad's old ones).


How close did I get?


This picture is for my family (or anybody else that knew my brother when he was in 2nd grade). How eerie is this?
Eli wore the glasses all day long and all I could see was my little brother looking at me through my son's face. Like I said, eerie.

Phoebe was feeling a little left out at this point so I snapped a picture of the two of them. Priceless!

After this picture was taken, we were finishing up the last few things to get ready to go. I told Eli to do something (I forget what) and Phoebe looked at me and said, "E-yi de boss of everybody!" I told her that he wasn't the boss of me and that mommies were always in charge. Especially in the morning.

At school during the weekly Friday morning pep rally, the kindergartners walked up on stage by class and were introduced by their teachers. The teacher said the child's name, what they wanted to be when they grew up, and why. There were several teachers and vets and nurses. In each class, there were no fewer than 4 cowboys/girls. Do you think this only happens in Texas? One little boy (dressed as a cowboy) said he wanted to be a rancher because ranchers made lots more money than cowboys! Eli said he wanted to the Boss of Everybody because he wanted to be just like his dad. It warmed the cockles of his daddy's heart...regardless of how misinterpreted it was!

(This picture is so grainy because I don't have a really good zoom lens for my camera and I was trying to cut out all the other children. I haven't figured out how to "blur" parts of an image. The hack job I did on the badge picture above isn't so great and took forever. I just know there's a better way! So if anybody knows how to do that in Photoshop Elements, I'm up for a tutorial!)

At the end of the day, the Boss of Everybody changed into his Star Wars footed pajamas, complained about having to practice his sight words (again), and enjoyed a movie sharing a sleeping bag with his little sister. Just like everybody else.

I Looked Up And It Was Thursday!

The last few days have flown by and when I finally took a look around, it was already Thursday!

Actually, I knew it was Thursday because all the people that live at my house are always cranky on Thursdays. I think it's because Wednesday nights are always late because of Huddles and it's just not yet Friday. Fridays mean fun and movie night and eating popcorn in the living room on bean bags. Thursday is just Thursday and there's just nothing fun about Thursday so we're all just a little cranky.

So back to why I kind of lost track of time. Phoebe started running a fever Tuesday afternoon. A Phantom Fever. One that would come and go with a wicked cough. It was a funny fever because while she was fever-ish she'd cry and whine and want to be held (no complaints there), but then I'd give her a breathing treatment and she go a little spastic. Spastic almost three-year-old with crazy hair is a sight to see! Oh, and did I mention that it started snowing again Wednesday night and school was delayed two hours this morning? Basically Phoebe and I have been homebound since Tuesday night and the cabin fever is starting to kick in. Good news? I am going to to town tomorrow! Bad news? The weather man is predicting snow again on Sunday night through Monday and rumor has it again on Thursday! Key West, anyone?

But my crazy few days haven't been a total loss. And just to prove it I've made a list of The Five Things I've Done Since My Last Blog Post:

1. I made THIS and THIS for dinner Wednesday night. Since we were snowed in, I made Thursday's dinner on Wednesday night. Good thing, too, because it meant I just had to make a batch of cornbread and re-heat the soup for Thursday's dinner. (A dinner that is usually precipitated by tears and tantrums...sometimes even by the children!) I made a few changes to the chili: only one can of white beans, drained, and one can of corn, also drained, and I only used 1/2 of a rotisserie chicken (which Eli de-boned). Oh, and the salsa? To. Die. For.

2. I started to organize all my fabric into Eli's old dresser that is now in the attic. I haven't finished this project because I have a lot of fabric and the attic has no heat. Hard to deal with on a day when it's only 30 degrees outside. I hope to finish it up (and label it!)by this weekend. You know, before it snows again.

3. I did a M-O-U-N-T-A-I-N of laundry.

4. I started another quilt! I have to get one more fabric to have the top completely cut out and then I can start piecing it together. Hopefully I can obtain said fabric when I go to town tomorrow. I was very careful with my cutting this time so maybe, just maybe it will be square in the end.

5. I (mostly) cleaned out the fridge. I still need to get in there with the 409, but all expired food is thrown out and everything is organized by type. Such a great feeling! Now let's fill it up again!


I'll wind this up by posting some of the snow day pictures from the end of last week and last weekend. I need to post them now so I won't get them confused with the ones I'll probably take in the next week or so! Sheesh.

This is sooo not what I had in mind when I first had this "brilliant" noodle tub idea.

The Pioneer Woman Redeemed

After the mac n' cheese fiasco, I've been a little timid in the kitchen...making only things that I knew would be a success. Recipes with memorized ingredient lists and preparation. Things I knew would be gobbled up with gusto.

But Thursday night I got an itching to try something new. Actually, I got the itch on Tuesday because that's the day I do my grocery shopping. And apparently everyone else in Amarillo, as well, due to the impending snow storm. Wally World was so packed, I was a few minutes late picking Phoebe up from preschool! Because of the storm, I knew I'd have ample time to make something long-simmering on the stove. Something comforting and yummy and hot. By fate, The Pioneer Woman had recently posted THIS recipe. My recent failure at her mac n' cheese made me a little leery. (Although I'm still certain that was my fault, not her recipe's, because every other recipe I've tried from her kitchen has been to die for. Pot Roast? Marvelous! Chicken Parmigiana? Yummy! Mashed Potatoes? My go-to recipe! Braised Short Ribs with Creamy Goat Cheese Polenta? To die for!)

So Thursday night, after a long day spent playing in the snow, watching movies, and working on the *&!*#^ curtains for the church nursery (a post for another time), I set on a pot of soup for supper.


There are no words to describe how deliciously yummy it was. It was like comfort in a bowl. Eli deemed it his "favorite soup"--better than Tortellini Soup, and as good as Grandaddy's Chili (Eli's standby favorite because it has beans in it). But part of his recommendation may be based on the fact that the boy was starving! He'd played all day in the snow and hadn't eaten since lunch at 11:30. Phoebe's reaction might be a little more telling.


Here are the changes I made to this soup: I added two extra carrots and an extra celery stick (because I love carrots and celery in soup), 3 or 4 chicken bouillon cubes (I can't remember), and more salt, pepper, and thyme, but I left out the parsley (I didn't have any).

It was "A single simple meal -- just one -- A meal that's good for everyone, A meal on which they all agree, Made from their secret recipe." (On a side note, this is also one of my very favorite children's books, and it just fit so darn perfectly.)

A recipe and a book recommendation all in one. Could there be a more perfect post?