Simple and Delicious Butternut Squash Soup

I know it's not everyone's favorite food, but I LOVE SQUASH. It's delicious roasted; in lasagna; and especially amazing in soup!

It's been a while since we've had butternut squash soup - probably a good two years! I was so excited to see that my mom put together a fresh batch to share with us this past weekend. I had a bowl at her house and two bowls the next day; it didn't take long for me to realize the squash I purchased earlier in the week to roast was going to have to be soup instead.

My mom sent me the recipe she used from All Recipes; it was a GREAT version and I would totally have made it just like she did - except - I needed it to be less fuss.  I am not against fussy recipes, but today I probably could have taken a nap if I just blinked long enough. So tired.

I needed to make the soup plus another dinner for the rest of our family. So, here's what I did. It was an amazing and tasty alternative. I can't wait to finish off the leftovers tomorrow. Even my non-soup-eating husband enjoyed a serving of this recipe.

Here's the scoop (or would that be ladle?).

What you need:

• Butternut squash. I used 2lbs, pre-cut, from Costco. 
• 1 rib of celery, diced
• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
• 1-2 handfuls of baby carrots.
• Sea salt and pepper to taste. Heavy on the pepper, if you please!
• Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 1-1.5 cups of water

What you do: 

• In a skillet, sauté the celery and onion (seasoned with s&p) until translucent. 
• In a sauce pot, coat the squash and carrots with EVOO, salt, pepper and start sauteeing.
• Once all veggies are tender,  combine in sauce pot and add water. 
• After everything is broken down and flavors have combined, drain off any water that seems excessive (there may be none) and transfer soup to a blender to smooth out. 
• I used my Blend Tec 570 on a slow speed so I could watch the consistency as I went along.
• Transfer back to stock pot and serve or cool slightly and store for later. 

Also? Here's what I had for dessert. It's like a faux ice cream sundae. Ice cream cone, fruit and a few chocolate chips with a sugar cone on the side. It has many of the flavors you want, with less guilt. 

So, that's it for today! Hope you are brave enough to try this tasty soup. If you like potato soup, chances are you'll like this, too.

Good luck and comment with questions if you have any. :)

Little tricks...bathroom organization.

I've been on a "Pinterquest" (exhaustive journey through stores, websites, craigslist, online garage sale sites, etc.) to find a cart or dresser suitable for a kitchen coffee station. While on this arduous quest for the perfect furnishings...a friend saw my inquiry for the perfect cart offered me the Ikea Raskog cart for $30. That's like $20 off the price of buying it brand new AND I don't have to drag my husband and/or kids to IKEA with me. Because, you know, no one in this house really likes Ikea except me. I had a feeling it wasn't going to work for the kitchen because of the color, edges on the shelves and it's a little smaller than I hoped for. THANKFULLY, I quickly noticed that my friend's Ikea cart coordinates perfectly with our kids' bathroom. The bathroom that has no storage aside from the medicine cabinet. Which...you can't really put towels in there.

A year ago, we ripped out the entire bathroom and put in new flooring, new paint, new toilet and new sink, new decor, etc. We decided to go with a pedestal sink because our children (who love to play in water) had played so hard at ye old bathroom sink, that our vanity had suffered significant water damage. Now, you can try to tell kids all you want that sinks are not for recreational use. However, they will always find a way to wash their hands a little longer. To get another drink. To brush teeth another time. All of these things usually end result in swimming toothbrushes, floating boats and extended periods of washing dolls' hair. Sigh. It's just a stage of life. They won't do it forever. I ain't scarrrred - except when they water damage our furnishings.

The pedestal sink looks great; it's pretty kid proof, but obviously offers zero storage. My intention was to put up some shelves (as seen on Pinterest, of course), but that never happened. When I saw this Raskog cart in the perfect color - I knew my bathroom plans were coming full circle.

Look. At. That. It matches the mirror, rug, wall-art and looks like it was made to squeeze right in that space between the wall and sink! I love it. I have it set up with three mason jars to hold toothbrushes and toothpaste (previously they would land in the sink or - gasp - the floor); hair products; hair accessories; and other bathroom-y things. The bottom two shelves have towels and washcloths (which were previously sending our hall closet into overflow status). I LOVE having this cart.

The only problem? Now I've thought of at least one, maybe two more places in the house where I need one.

Also? I found the perfect cart for our coffee station, but it's back ordered. Hopefully I can post on that in early February after it shows up. SO excited!!!

This week's meal plan - (mostly) all from Costco. :)

Did I mention that I love Costco? I think I did...maybe once or twice. I usually go during the week with all four kids and we do our weekly grocery run. My husband had some errands to run this morning, so he dropped two of the kids and I off at Costco for A WHOLE HOUR. Did you know that taking two kids to Costco for an hour is like equivalent to being there for ten minutes with four kids? Don't do the math...just trust me. It was like a leisurely stroll in the park.

As a result, we got to look at ALL THE THINGS and I actually have this week's dinners planned and purchased for this coming week. It feels great to be ahead of the game, but it doesn't usually happen that way for us. I was going to post something else today, but pushed it back till tomorrow so you can check out my weekly meal plan and glean some ideas from it if you like! I know when I'm at a loss for what to cook, I read blog after blog via Pinterest until it's figured out.

Ready? Here we go! 

• Monday - Oven seared salmon with roasted butternut squash, broccoli and crimini mushrooms and maybe some brown rice on the side - I have to decide if rice is necessary. 
• Tuesday - Spinach and cheese ravioli with homemade bread and garlic butter - maybe some roasted veggies on the side.
• Wendesday - Slow cooker Italian chicken with rigatoni or angel hair.
• Thursday - Garlic butter quinoa and shrimp
• Friday - Company is coming! Menu TBD
• Saturday - Chipotle (hoooray!!)

Also, if I get a second, I'm going to make some more viscotta (Italian sesame cookies) for the hubs and I do dip in our morning coffees. :) 

Slow Cooker Scalloped Potatoes!

It's a rare-occasion, but sometimes the Internet does indeed let me down when it comes to finding recipes. That rare phenomenon happened this morning as I searched - to no-end - for a crockpot scalloped potato recipe. Basically, this is what happened. Every recipe had ingredients that I didn't want to mess with; didn't have; or required time I didn't want to spend. So, alas, I invented something. We haven't sat down to dinner yet, but I smell the potatoes cooking and I think the outcome will be favorable. I also might have scraped the leftover sauce out of the pan and ate it straight. So I kind of know it's going to be good as long as I don't burn it.

Here's how it went down...

Prep work:

• Wash and thinly slice some red potatoes. I think I used 5 or 6 to feed our family of 6.  Tough, right? 

On the stovetop: 

• 2c almond milk - bring it to a boil
• Add in 1/4c flour - or just accidentally dump in some random amount like I did. It's cool. Stir till it's smooth.
• Salt, pepper, garlic, minced dried onion and butter (like 2T of butter).  Stir it up some more. 
• Throw in a handful of cheese. I don't know how much. Don't fret. Just put a generous palmful-ish in. And if you crazy, add more and more and more and more. I love cheese.

JUST DON'T FORGET TO STIR CONSTANTLY. K? I'm not responsible for your burnt cheese sauce, only my own. 

Now, layer it up in your crockpot:

• Spray the TAR out of your crockpot with a non-stick spray. Otherwise, you might as well just throw out your crock when you're done. 
• Layer 1: Potatoes (salt, pepper, minced dried onion and parsley them)
• Layer 2: another handful of cheese;
• Layer 3: pour on 1/3 of the sauce. 

Repeat 1-3 until you are out of ingredients or space in your crockpot. Top with some more pepper and parsley or whatevs. I use dry parsley because fresh parsley is like...I might as well just throw it in the trash right after I use it the first time. I never use a full head of parsley before it turns into a science experiment. 

Cook on LOW for 8-10hrs or HIGH for 4-6hrs. I cooked on HIGH because I basically can't think about dinner 8-10hrs ahead of time unless it's like Thanksgiving day or we have RESERVATIONS. Can I get an AMEN? 

Enjoy!!  I served it with baked ham/pineapple for my meat-eaters and boiled cabbage. 

We also had banana/vanilla wafer pudding - part of our homeschooling math and science lesson for the day. Sadly, I forgot to add the bananas. Live and learn, right? This is real life, people. 

Here's to all the breakfast sandwich lovers!!!!

Okay, I realize that I just told you about my dinner a few hours ago - but I really can't wait until later this evening to tell you about breakfast! I absolutely love breakfast sandwiches. We don't usually get breakfast out; whenever we go on a road trip, though, getting a breakfast sandwich (preferably something McNasty) is one of the highlights. Is that sad? I don't think that's sad.

My glorious waffle egg sandwich.

A month or so I was cruising the aisles of Target and made one of the best impulse-buys of all time. The Hamilton Beach 25475A Breakfast Sandwich Maker (which is cheaper on Amazon than at Target) has been my breakfast go-to almost every morning since.

Here's how it works - the sandwich maker has a few different layers. You add in half of your bread/muffin and the cheese; then add egg and salt or other seasonings in the next layer and top with the rest of the bread/muffin. It cooks it all together and is ready in about 5 minutes!

At first I started with standard breakfast sandwiches (one of my favorites is the egg-white breakfast sandwich from Tim Hortons). I just used an english muffin, egg, cheddar and some salt and pepper to re-create. It was super tasty, but pretty basic. I started imagining all the possibilities...

Egg sandwich on Ezekiel muffins with spicy cheese

Variations

Hubby's double fried egg experiment

• I bought a spicy shredded cheese from the grocery. Basically once that happened, I haven't gone back to a normal cheddar since. I LOVE spicy cheese.
• Using *special edition* english muffins. I tried the apple and my husband tried pumpkin - both were very good!!!
• Yesterday and the day before, I used Ezekiel 4:9 Cinnamon Raisin english muffins (with said spicy cheese), egg, and salt. That was tasty, but my husband wasn't a fan. He claimed too many flavors. We'll just agree to disagree. I thought it was great. 
• This morning, I attempted my ultimate sandwich...I wasn't sure this was going to work because of the size of the waffles, but it totally did. Two blueberry waffles; 1 egg with salt; 1 slice of colby jack cheese. I could eat this sammie EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Omgosh. I may even try to incorporate syrup somehow. It was SO good and I didn't feel that fast food breakfast guilt. Eggo makes a similar frozen breakfast sandwich, but they are like $6 for 4 sandwiches and not as good. I bought them one time and got one - our oldest daughter got the other three over a couple day time period. 
• Also this morning, my husband used the sandwich maker to create a double fried? egg. It came out beautifully. He's so sensible. 

So, those are just a few of things you can do with this amazing device. Now, can I get my own informercial? 

And she dragged me, kicking and screaming.

So, I wasn't going to post today. I really didn't have anything spectacular to say and...honestly? I have a lot of messes going on at home lately. I have piles of clothes to be sorted; a homeschool room to be organized; toys to be purged; laundry to be laundered; children to be fed; PiYo to do; calories to be counted; toilets to scrub; prayers to be said; devotions to be done; and the list goes on and on...all the while the pool is calling my name for a couple more weeks. However, my TimeHop app sent me a picture today and it prompted the following thoughts.

A year ago, I hadn't been out with friends for about 18 months. When I mean "out with friends," I mean...like out, without kids. There wasn't really a reason I hadn't been out; I've never been a big Ladies-Night-Outer, I just got so consumed with everything going on around here (adjusting to life as a stay-at-home-mom of four after working outside the home, being pregnant, nursing a baby, taking care of the house and other kids, working it all around my husband's schedule, and sinking in to my own very comfortable routine of Facebook, blogging and photos, etc) that I didn't feel like taking the effort to get cleaned up and escape for a short while and go have a coffee, conversation and a little breathing room with friends. I just didn't feel like it. I didn't want to leave my routine and comfort zone.

However, I have a friend named Jenny, jennyitup, JRap.

Everyone should have a JRap.

She relentlessly harassed me to leave the house with her, for just a bit, and go have fun. (You should also know we were friends for like two years before this point). Now, if you know Jenny, you know she wasn't trying to get me to jump ship, get blindly drunk and max out the credit cards. She's just OLDER than me a seasoned wife and mom, also has a slew of kids, and she knows that a little time off in the right environment, for the right reasons, and with the right folks, is good. Everyone needs a time-out, right? We planned. And I'm pretty sure I got nervous and canceled twice (I'm not really sorry sorry, Jenny!!). Then she basically threatened me in the most Christian way possible.

So, we negotiated.

I told Jenny I would leave the house after the baby was in bed and if she picked me up. She obliged and we had coffee, chocolate and about a thousand laughs. It was a great boost and had me re-fueled for the next day. I'm pretty sure I texted her after to ask when we were going out the next time. So, one year later, we're still doing this. A few friends of ours all get together once every month-and-a-half or so and we just get together and breathe. and chat. and laugh. and eat food we don't normally eat. and get that breathing room that we all need, but so rarely make time for.

I love my husband and kids, so much, but I think a little breathe-time is good for all of us. It allows me to stop, collect thoughts and re-fuel while my husband and kids get a break from me can bond together, too! I've learned that going out doesn't make me a run-away mom, it just gives me an occasional time-out. Who would fight that?

Giving thanks.

Okay, guys, I've had my stomach turned upside down more than once by reading overly descriptive details about someone's stomach virus via social media. So, I'll try to keep this tactful. About three this morning, I heard that noise - you know, that inhuman noise that comes from a small child who is suddenly sick in the middle of the night. That noise was followed by her tears and wailing, lots of laundry, and a trip to the tub over the next few hours.

Our poor babe. She was sick with a belly bug just a couple weeks ago, and she picked it up again. I was not pleased to be jolted awake; belly bugs put my OCD on overdrive; and I really would take a week of strep over getting sick to my stomach just once. I avoid it at all costs. It's so so horrible!!

Alas, I think the Lord put this on my plate (again) for a reason. See, I was the only parent home a
couple weeks ago when the child got sick repeatedly over a two-hour period. I followed her around with bleach while she felt bad. Though my hubs got up and help with the baby last night - rocking her and bathing her this morning - I knew this job was mostly on me, too. I'm rather slow to take this posture of grace when I see something I don't want to deal with (like this). Sometimes I just don't, even when I should. I feel sorry for myself. I complain. I retreat inward.

Alas, thinking on the sacrificial love of Christ makes it easier to deal with. It's getting easier as time goes on. Left to my own inward thoughts, I would rather be in my nice warm bed at 3 a.m. instead of trying to catch a wink or two camped out on our daughter's bedroom floor. I would have rather not had those ickies doing a sick dance around my head. I would have rather not made fifteen trips up and downstairs in the middle of the night. I would have rather not done extra laundry. I would have rather not had any part of it.

BUT. There in the middle of the night, Grace compelled me to be grateful. 

• Grateful that I could lay next to my daughter as she was sick, because she was probably very scared. 
• Grateful that we had two. Count 'em, TWO diapers left, and that was just enough to get through the night.
• Grateful that we have a bathtub to bathe her in and plenty of clean sheets and blankets to dress her bed with and keep her warm.
• Grateful for that glider and footstool I got a garage sale for $15. That thing has a million miles on it by now and it was great to rock her back to sleep last night.
• Grateful for my husband, who is a great dad, and got up to help without me saying a word.
• Grateful that the big kids slept until 8 this morning, so we at least caught up a little bit. 
• Grateful that the kids had today off school; no one wants to take a sick baby out in the cold.
• Grateful for our warm bed that was fabulous to sink back into after baby went back to sleep.
• Grateful for the sanitary cycle on our washer!
• Grateful that just last night, I bought a new scrubber for the bathtub. 
• Grateful that my husband's work schedule allowed for him to go grab a pack of diapers and return them to me before going in this morning. 
• Grateful for fuzzy slippers, a hoodie and leggings - my uniform for today. 
• Grateful to have more espresso than I can drink on-hand today.
• And, mostly, Grateful for a God who loves and loves and loves despite the fact that we are just filthy sinners.

Taking a posture of grace isn't always easy, but we are commanded to do it as believers and it makes life a whole lot more bearable. Is there something you need to act on, with grace, today?

Now, time for another latte. 

Kitchen Remodel

A couple posts ago, I told you all about our kitchen overhaul. With plenty of help from friends and family, we had the whole thing ripped out and put back together in about three weeks! We try to do everything as frugally as possible while still doing quality updates, at the best prices (or barters) possible. :) I wanted to show you some before and afters in case you are looking for ideas for your own kitchen.

Initially, we just wanted to replace our laminate flooring. We installed hand-scraped hardwood flooring throughout the rest of the first floor (minus the bathroom) about two years ago, and the transition between our family room and kitchen just hasn't been right since.

Of course, flooring leads to cabinets, cabinets lead to counters, counters lead to walls, and so on. Before you know it, we were committing to a total re-do.

This is the finished product. Here's what we did...

• Flooring - We replaced our old well-worn laminate flooring with 16x16 porcelain tile from Home Depot laid in a diamond pattern. A friend of ours laid it for us. He does awesome work and is currently helping us renovate the upstairs bathroom. I think this really opens up the room, don't you?
• Cabinets - Our builder-grade oak cabinets weren't broken or unusable, so we just updated them with paint and hardware. We used Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations to get the paint work finished. It's a simple three to four step process (four if you use the decorative glaze, which we didn't). I opted for the classic white painted look. It was a lot of agony to decide what color, believe me! I think it was the right decision. You'll also notice that we removed our island. (I know! Who would take out extra storage space?) The fact of it is, we really just had it filled with junk that was easily re-homed elsewhere (like the pantry and in other re-organized cabinets). We were constantly stepping on each others toes to avoid the thing. Our kitchen really isn't big enough to be further cramped with the island, breakfast bar that we never used - not once - plus four kids.
• Counters - This may be my favorite part. We replaced our original counters with concrete counter tops. After looking at a few sample colors, we went with black (charcoal, maybe) counters infused with brilliant flecks of stainless steel. WE LOVE THEM. :) They really pull the whole kitchen together. I mean, my word....look how good they make my coffee and eggs look?
  
  
  
• Doors - Here's another quandary. Our pantry doors and the surrounding frame were originally painted the color of pooh. That's really the best descriptor I have. We had been hoping to change them for the last five and a half years, but never got around to it. I searched the depths of Pinterest to see what we should do. I really didn't want two white doors in the middle of a long kitchen wall; they would just be asking for dirty little handprints every day, I know it. I decided to go with black, and a metallic glaze. Here's a word to the wise. If you ever care to glaze something, read up on glazing first. My nephew (who is an AMAZING painter and helped us SO much with this kitchen) and I glazed them with a metallic finish; after they dried, I added more black back in because they looked a little splotchy. I think they are just right now.
  
  In addition to the color, the dated brass doorknobs had to go. I couldn't find any respectable stainless looking dummy doorknobs, so I painted them with Rustoleum spray paint. Wahoo. They are a little on the sparkly side (because of the color I picked), but I think they work well and it wasn't a bad process. (Thank you for the idea, Pinterest!)

• There's also that over-sized letter I hung on the wall next to the doors (my Anthropologie DIY). I wrote about that a few posts back. I gets lots of compliments; you should totes make one!

• On the other side, in an effort to balance the room out with complementary colors all around, I added black curtains tied off with a little rope for detail (Target - 2 panels for $24.99). Rope was on a spool from the fabric store. Aside from the black curtains, the door still needed some balancing. I made this black and natural burlap wreath with a black bow to tie it all together. 

On a sad note, the motor died on the Kitchen Aid mixer we got for a wedding gift almost 10 years ago. :( THANKFULLY, I was given a brand new sparkly beautiful one for Christmas. How about that? It even matches the kitchen. :) We got a MUCH NEEDED new knife set, too. 

So, I think that's it (for now!). We'll eventually replace the large flourescent light that hangs where our island once was with recessed lighting. But, for now, we have a bathroom to fix-up and we're just happy to have a working kitchen! :) 

DIY Anthropologie Letters

As I mentioned in my last post, we're in the midst of a kitchen re-do; while plenty of things still wait to be done (cabinetry hardware, countertop installation, doors and trim painted, junk sorted), I could not seem to rest until that one blank space on our wall, which formerly housed a DIY chalkboard (that I accidentally trashed with paint markers) was filled. Blank walls make me nervous. Know what I mean?

I hit up TJ Maxx and, after having three children there for two hours, we came up with nada for the wall. I searched Etsy for some incredible handcrafted masterpiece aaaaaaand, nothing. Nothing in my cheapskate price range anyway. FINALLY, I remembered the oversized wall-letters I pinned some time ago. I started wondering if I could pull this project off or if it would result in an oversized mess in our kitchen... My curiosity won and we headed to the craft store, with only two littles in-tow this time.

I know you all have seen these. I know some of your are probably wondering if this super-easy craft is blog-worthy. However, I must tell you, I am a reformed non-crafter. All this crafting business is still new to me. I don't even own a glue gun yet. GASP! I'm amazed at how inexpensive and simple this was and, of course, that it actually worked without me gluing my fingers together, spilling a gallon of paint on the new floor, or catching something on fire. I'm just being honest.

Here it is.

See these? $98 for one letter? We won't be needing them.

Two of the littles and I went to Jo Ann Fabrics and picked up one of these. With a coupon, I think it was about $5. It's made of paper mache and surprisingly well-constructed.

I had some paint on hand, Martha Stewart's black metallic and then I picked up another straight metallic from Martha's collection, also from Jo Ann's.

I used a foam brush that I already had on-hand, though I'm sure you could use a regular paint brush as well. Foam brushes are nearly a dime a dozen and deposit nicely in the nearest trash receptacle when you're finished with them. I'm all about minimal craft clean-up, folks.

I painted on a nice coat of black, then did some touch ups. After that coat dried completely (or most of the way, anyway), I moved on to a coat of metallic. You can add as little or as much as you want, depending on the look you desire. I wanted this letter to look more black than metallic. So, I think that's how it ended up.

I attached velcro to the back (also picked up at JoAnn's). Look for it by the 3M hooks.

Then, I sat back and took a sigh of relief for a craft well-done, with a DIY peppermint mocha. Yum, yum, yum.

When the big picture falls off the wall and shatters...

So, yesterday I decided that I was going to take our family photos (read: tripod and self-timer and an entire family that will not be still for a group photo). It was sure to be a fun time, really. Since I regularly photograph other families, I should have no problem photographing my own, right? I know the photog tricks, right? I know how to capture the details; pick the perfect lighting; adjust my settings; set-up my tripod AND set the self-timer.

Yeah. My worlds were colliding yesterday and my MomTog powers were quickly failing. My mother-in-law, who is an amazing artist herself, stepped in to help on the shutter button so at least the tripod and self-timer factors were eliminated - opening our photo session up for a little better chance at success. However, despite my mother-in-law's valiant efforts (and she did well), our children are 1, 3, 5, and 7. They had no interest in sitting still for a group photo.

In fact, most of our shots came out this way.

I was getting frustrated and, finally, gave the official mother's siren of surrender, "OH, NEVERMIND." We'll do this another day (another day five years from now, perhaps).

Do you ever feel that way? You've used your precious brain space to architect the details of what's to occur; you've taken time, effort, and a whole lot of sweat and grass stains to get there and, in an instant, everything just seems to fall apart? The walls crumble. The rocks slide. It's a wash.

I was starting to feel that way. Frustrated, I flung my camera strap back over my head and the children scattered all over the yard. Three of them ran to the swings and the baby started crawling through leaf piles, quickly dirtying the fall outfit that I'd picked - so carefully - for our photo session. A few deep breaths and I started doing what I usually do, photographing the kids having fun and enjoying life.

Then I thought of something; when I photograph families, we may do the obligatory milestone family shot, but 99% of the photos I take are of life, as it happens. I want to capture actual memories being made, not just children sitting quietly in a carefully arranged huddle, with wide grins and hands folded on their laps. In real life, families don't behave that way. So, why make such a fuss to capture that?

My original plans may have been foiled by wiggling kids, but I think the Lord had a bigger plan for me yesterday.

Because of my wiggling children, I was able to capture this:

And this

Our kids will remember their precious time with grandom; they will remember dad giving them underdogs on the swing-set; they will remember getting muddy in the grass. Yesterday, I was reminded that life is more than just a pretty picture - it's the details that matter.

And the LORD presented this lesson that I seemingly have to learn, time and time again. HE knows each of our days. He knows how our lives are going to shake out. He owns the details. So, while we fiddle and fuss over something that may not have happened our way, remember the details, the learning experiences, the lives touched and the hearts surrendered. Remember that every breath and beat of our heart has been carefully orchestrated by HIM. I'm re-assured by those things, when "my" plans don't work out. How about you?

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare[a] and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  

Seems like an appropriate time to leave you with one of my favorite quotes. "Remember this, had any other condition been better for you than the one in which you are, divine love would have put you there." -C.H. Spurgeon. 

Amen..and amen...and amen.

Crispy Cheesy Veggie Quinoa Casserole

Perhaps I should think of a better name for this dish - one that's not so cumbersome. Marketing
friends? Anywho. If you've been reading my blog a while, you may note that I've posted similar variations of this recipe twice before. HOWEVER, unlike most of my kitchen experiments, this one just keeps getting better each time I make it! I want to share this recipe with you (again), so you can also experience the awesomeness that is quinoa and other (glorious) miscellany baked to perfection in a 9x13 pan - your family us sure to drool. K. Ready? Let's goooooo!!!

This recipe has three big parts, so I'm going to explain them to you how I see them in my head. I hope that makes sense. If not, you're going to have to do your best (sorrrrry).

Part 1: 

• Cook up your quinoa! If you're new to this super-food, here's a good way to do it. Measure 1 cup of uncooked quinoa and rinse thoroughly. Measure 2 cups of cold water. Dump it all in your rice cooker, set it to cook, and go fold laundry until it says "Heyyyyyyyy yo, fresh-cooked quinoa is up!" Or clicks, or beeps, or whatever. You know. If you don't have a rice cooker (get one; I promise, you need it) or follow the package directions.

Part 2: 

• Sauté your veggies. You can do this however you usually sauté veggies. I use some grape seed oil, sea salt and a little garlic to sauté ours. Just cook over medium-heat until they are nicely tender (aka - you can stick a fork in 'em). 

Part 3: 

• Start workin' the casserole dish.
  
• Add quinoa
• Add veggies
• Add a handful of cheese
• Add a teaspoon-ish of salt
• Sprinkle entire contents with pepper
• Sprinkle entire contents with onion powder
• Gently incorporate all ingredients listed above.
• Pour 1/2 cup of milk (I used almond) on top of all ingredients and, again, incorporate all. If the ingredients seem too dry, add more milk - about 1/4 cup at a time. You don't want quinoa soup. (Or maybe you do? Maybe that will be my next variation). 
• Once incorporated, sprinkle another handful of cheese atop the casserole.
• Sprinkle PANKO breadcrumbs across the top of the cheese (don't be using regular breadcrumbs, now; we don't skimp on cheese OR breadcrumbs around here).
• Sprinkle a little paprika across the breadcrumbs. I don't really know what this does aside from making the casserole pretty. It's pretty much optional (I guess.)
• Toss it in the oven. About 375 for 25 or so minutes (watch for the cheese to melt and the casserole to feel firm). Now, go fold more laundry and wait for it. 

Part 4:

• Basque in the awesomeness that is this quick, protein-rich and easy meal! Enjoy!

Even my (little) kids, know I'm little.

This isn't a weight-loss post, or a short-person post. It's a hope-post.

We stopped at the store yesterday and I was unloading the littles, one-by-one, as our five-year-old says to me, "Mom, you know you're kind of little." I smiled while walking around the other side of the van to get another kid out. As I unbuckle the baby, he says it again as if I didn't hear him the first time. "Mom, you're just little." And, as I thought for a moment that he may be referring to my height (after-all, I am a short-mom), he says this, "God and Jesus are big. They're big big big and Jesus is coming back soon. Down here." He was using a very serious look and expressive hand motions to help me understand the importance of what he was saying.

I find it amazing how God can instill such big thoughts in my little guy's mind and allow those thoughts to escape his lips at the moment his mama needs to hear them. You see, our boy will be starting school next year, and I'm not quite ready for that. I've been thinking about it a lot lately and even brought up home-schooling to my husband. In my mind, he's still so young. So impressionable. So sweet. Though he does need to be in school (and he is eager to go), I'm not ready to send him into the world without his mom and daddy by his side. I really just want to keep him at home with us forever. I will miss him.

When those deep words fell from his little lips, though, I knew I needed to start having trust and hope, instead of doubts, about the day when our little guy ventures into the half-day world of art boxes and alphabets next fall. After-all, these thoughts of concern have been consuming my mind and time too much lately.

His simple, yet great, message to me was an indicator just to stop doubting, and trust the Lord. While
my boy may seem so small still, so are all of us really. We are all still learning and loving and hurting and winning and losing each day. It's not my job to be the child's savior; I have to trust in the Lord that our boy will be just fine at school. I have to trust that He will seek Christ in his worldly troubles while I standby to show him motherly love, discipline and compassion. The Lord designed that for us. And, like all other things in life, this moment in life and letting go is also by design. I can't say that I won't be sad on our son's first day of school, but I will have trust and hope because His plans are always good, even if they go against our own time-table and readiness.

Jeremiah 29:11 - English Standard Version (ESV)

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare^[a] and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

What are you going to do with your life?

You know the career assessments, from high school, that help you determine what to do with your life? Yeah. I loved those. I loved thinking about the possibilities of all the things I could do and how I was going to do them. Though I had some ideas, there really wasn't one particular profession or field I thought I'd be in. I knew I wanted to get married, have kids, write and help people. Those assessments always alluded to options that included me writing/teaching/helping people, but I had no idea how these things would play together in real life. I went through college and got a BA in English (professional writing) then took the first job that came to me as a technical writing intern; then, soon after, that internship got me a full-time job working for a financial management company. Let me tell you something. I got Cs and Ds (D = diploma, right?) in high school math. I am not a numbers person.  I really didn't belong in a company with a financial focus, regardless of what I was doing there. It's like foreign matter to me, y'all.

After having our first baby I found it really, really hard (okay, anxiety made it impossible) to travel (only day trips 50-100 miles away) for work, which was required by my position at the financial place. Pretty soon, I transitioned into another position with the same company - not requiring travel or number crunching - and that lasted a few months before I moved on totally. My momdar was on high alert and I just couldn't be so far away from my baby. To prove it, I even got pulled over on the way home from my last day of work. I just couldn't wait a second longer to get back to my little one and start soul searching again.

I felt perplexed and uncertain on who the new "me" was going to be. I was on this "what am I going to do with my (professional) life" quest. Even though I already had a degree (I've loved writing since I could hold a pencil - that should have been a clue), I decided to become a licensed realtor. Because, you know, what was I really going to do with writing? Like, in real life. Heh.

When I was 75% done with the classes I found out I was pregnant with #2 and the Lord literally stopped me in my tracks. I couldn't keep my eyes open (due to first trimester sleepies) through the Real Estate Law class. I just couldn't. I quit and didn't finish the classes.

A couple years later, I found myself enrolled in a masters program for Business Counseling. Guess what - pregnant again. SURPRISE! I knew I couldn't devote enough energy to either my kids (or my job) or the masters program to make it through. I quit before the first class even started.

I promise, I'm not really a quitter - look at my baking!!

Finally, I took another position that I thought would be the winner. As it turns out, that wasn't it either.  In fact, I was more frustrated than ever - until the Lord spoke right in my ear. You know those kids I wanted? Yeah, they are the ones that needed my time and labor. I had been looking to define myself by a career path, not by my identity in Christ. He was piecing it together for me and I was flat out ignoring Him until this point. Collectively, my husband and I listened and agreed that the best place for me to be was home - helping him with our business and taking care of our home and children. And, right before I quit my last job I got another sign - baby #4 was coming.

With all that said, I looked high and low for my calling, but God had been sending me the signals (two pink lines at a time) all along. I'm so happy to be home with these children and so content to know I'm doing the job God made for me and trust Him that it's right. I love taking care of our family each day. It's a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week job filled with laundry, diapers, messes, homework, laughter, coloring, toy cars, bubbles and baby dolls. There's no bi-weekly pay, vacation days or 401k, but the rewards are infinite and I get to write about it all along the way.

So, my high school career assessment was right after all, who knew.

I really need to re-take Home Economics...

You guys, I almost had a baking emergency FOR REAL last night. About an hour before company showed up for our son's birthday, I decided to do a baking experiment (you know, what's one more last-minute kitchen mess?). I was trying to re-create this awesome sweet/salty chocolate chip cookie that I had at a coffee house a few nights ago and have been obsessing over since. After I scanned Google for a recipe I thought may work, I ran into my first problem.

I was out of this recipe's "secret" ingredient, corn starch. No worries, right? Tapioca starch has to be the same. Right?! (It's not 1:1, btw, I didn't take the time to read that on the package before using it...)

Next problem, this recipe requires 30 minutes of refrigeration. Usually, ain't nobody (ME) got time for that. I decided to try to do the right thing here and went along with the refrigeration.

Annnnd, then I heard some clanking. From our Kitchen Aid mixer. Maybe I didn't lock the bowl down before turning it on? Oh no, it's better.

A steak knife that I laid atop the bowl fell in, sharp side up, after I turned the mixer on high speed. I see this knife being tossed around the bowl - threatening to fly across the kitchen at every spin of the beater. I get that prickly-heat nervous feeling through my body and the kids start screaming in horror. I was trying to decide how best to quickly intervene while being barrier between the knife and the children and trying not to end up with an ER trip myself. I was scarrrred, you guys.

The knife was removed safely and we went on with life.

I get the cookies in all their un-clean, refrigerated dough glory into the oven and - eight minutes later - they look like COOKIE SOUP on the stinking pan.

WHAT?

I walked away and came back five minutes later. Still soupy. After texting my frustrations to a friend, I notice the oven ISN'T ON, but is still warm from the cake I just took out. Sweet.

I turn the oven on. Ten minutes pass. Now the cookies are (as my dad said), cookie brittle. Ok, ok, I'll write those off to a baking error, let's try the next batch. I phone Willing Cook for sympathy.

You guys. I don't know. They baked, but they also got glued to the pan and a little bit darker than the dark chocolate GHIRADELLI chips I used in them. Yeah, I wasted good chocolate on these suckers.

No less, I scraped what I could off the pan and (using an old trick) consoled myself with the super dark, ugly, chocolate-y, cookie brittle. Sigh.

While my cookie recipe was a total bust, at least no one was injured and the party went on. Maybe that will teach me to make non-clean cookies. Now, about scrubbing those cookie sheets...

I'm gonna sue you, norovirus!

Ok, so we're not the suing type. One day last week, in a state of total grossed outness and frustration, I actually told my husband that I'd like to sue the stupid stomach virus that leached on to our family, if I could. Of course, I can't. So, let's blog about it instead, shall we?

Yes, let's.

So, we know all sorts of people who've had this dag gone thing. My friend Jenny's family had it for A MONTH! It's accounted for about a dozen canceled play-dates and it needs to go on and get lost already! I somehow thought we got a get-out-of-noro-free pass with all the other crud that ran through here this winter; alas, it started with the three-year-old, who had never thrown up before.

That's always fun.

She started in the middle of the night and was fine seconds later, of course. The next child - our baby - was also in the middle of the night almost on cue every couple hours. In all seriousness, having a sick infant is really traumatic on a mama. After that, it was the oldest who got sick (without warning, mind you) moments after we walked into the grocery. Blue light special, right over here. Next, our poor boy. He had a a mild case and kept it all contained for us. He's sweet like that.

Then, mama got a vicious case of it.

I was sick for several days; it was horrible. That is all.

Then, the hubs got it.

He's been a total trooper.

Alas, God is good, right?? Most of spring break may have been consumed by vomit and clorox, but
we're making it through! Every time I began to get fussy about our situation, I tried to turn it around to a praise instead. I have to remind myself about 500 times on any given day not to be negative. I'm working on it. Here are some things I came up with. Hopefully you'll see that even the worst situations are for God's good. Maybe we got down with the noro because we really needed some humbling to happen? Who knows. But, here's what I do know:

Praise God for...

1. Our working washer and dryer. This past week would have been incredibly difficult without it!
2. The new water heater we got a week or two before. Hot water is a necessity for all those clean-ups!
3. The strength to fold and put away all that laundry!
4. Healing! Norovirus is horrible, but we're pulling through!
5. The fact that we weren't vacationing in Florida, where we originally planned to be. Wouldn't THAT be something fierce. We had too much going on and canceled our trip a few weeks beforehand.
6. A lesson in humility. If holding you child's hair as she vomits repeatedly on the grocery store floor as folks pass by isn't a lesson in humility...I'm not sure what is.
7. Extra clean kids! Lots of baths and showers last week!
8. Our oldest being home on break (not having to miss school) and being able to help occupy the non-sicklings when she wasn't sick and others were.
9. Grandparents that occupied the older children when mommy was getting sick and hallucinating about tornados, cheddar bay biscuits and double rainbows. I told you this virus is wack! 
10. My husband's flexible schedule. He was able to help so much.
11. A surge in nesting power. Nothing makes you want to clean the house and push all the laundry through like a week of sickness. Our house is (almost entirely) super clean! Still finishing a few rooms and laundry. :)
12. Nice weather at the end of the week! It wasn't a total loss. We got to a museum, park, and family get together.
13. Support and prayers from other friends who have been in this situation.
14. The opportunity to spend extra time with the kids - reading, snuggling up, and relaxing (as much as possible) instead of running a million different directions.
15. A break from social media. I just couldn't stomach the food pics.
16. Most importantly, assurance from our Lord that all things are good - even when they may seem not so good at the moment.

That's all, guys! Hope you're staying healthy. :)

PS. Today I'm linking up with Ruth at GraceLaced.com. Go check out her beautifully written blog as well as the others who are linking up with more Grace Laced posts. :)

Mommy needs a time-out.

Ok, you guys, I've heard this come up in conversation among my friends a couple times recently so I'm guessing that a blog post on the topic won't be useful to just me. We'll see. 

Here's the deal. Day after day, I have to remind my children that they need to clean up their rooms, put their things away, work on their lessons, etc. before getting into their iThings. However, while mommy blogs away, facebooks, tweets, pins, and photographs and her room remains in disarray and the dirty clothes piles grow taller than the two-year-old. For the longest time, I thought "this is my outlet." We don't socialize much without our kids in tow, so I kind of wrote off these little visits to the interwebs as "me time" (I really dislike that term, btw). When my frustration increased about the pile of dishes or the load of clothes waiting to be folded, I remembered something. If it doesn't get done, it's because I'm not doing my job. That's right, I said my job. If I worked an 8-5 and let my projects fall behind, I'd get fired. So, why should homemaking be any different? My work needs to glorify God no matter where I am! Just because I don't punch a clock doesn't give me an excuse to slack. While God can most certainly be glorified by things of the interwebs (including time spent researching (aka pinning) homemaking ideas), it's often time wasted. So, with those thoughts, I've changed the way I do things around here.

I'm not an award-winning housekeeper by any means (in fact, it's one of those things I have prayed to have a better heart for!), but I try to set some limits for myself. I make sure my urgent tasks are done (obviously, laundry will never be done unless someone goes naked. The dishes will never all be sparkling and put away), but I make sure that we're pretty presentable at a moment's notice and the main things are finished before I get lost in the interwebs. Just like I have our Kindergardener trade 20 minutes of reading time for 30 minutes of screen time, I allow myself a Facebook break once XYZ (usually laundry and dishes) are done.

Even if you're a domestic misfit, like me, that doesn't excuse you from taking care of your home and your family before doing other things. I am one of the biggest mess-makers I know. I could write it off as a right-brainer thing; a left-hander thing; an only-child thing; a tired-mom thing, but all-in-all, it's a heart thing; it's a spiritual thing; it's a faith thing; it's an example to my children thing; it's a Titus 2 thing and a Proverbs 31 thing; it's a discipling thing. It's something I need to work on, pray about and will hopefully get better at. And, it's something that I must do to glorify God and to be a good example to my children. Even if I'm not good at it. It's important. So, go on and x-out of this screen and get to work. That's where I'm headed.

Proverbs 22:6 ~  Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

PS. This post is listed on the Time Warp Wife's Titus2sday blog link-up. Please head over to Darlene's site to check out all of the awesome blogs linked up today!

Thrift store shopping - It ain't just dead folks' clothes.

Thrift store shirt and thrift store jeans. Holla!

I may have blogged on this topic before, but I'm not sure. You're going to have to bare with me; we're working on week four of illness in this house!

I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty appalled at the price of clothing. I don't pay full-price, but even at that, the sale prices aren't much better! I try to buy off-season, from garage sales, on clearance, or...MY FAVORITE...shop the thrift stores!

Thrifting isn't just for Halloween costumes, you guys. Every time I go, I walk away with name-brand (and often high-end) merchandise for a fraction of the cost (I could totally write commercials, no?). Anywho. Our little girls and I went on a thrifting excursion. We spent about an hour at the local Goodwill and came out with a few great items!

My oldest girl got a Gap dress and a classic Ralph Lauren dress and some like new Keen sandals ($50 new). I walked away with Old Navy jeans ($35 new), a Lands End Canvas dress ($60-80 new), and two more summer dresses. My middle girly got a sweet Disney brand princess shirt. We also picked up some other random stuff ~ thermal coffee mugs (you know those are probably marked up about 900% in the stores); a gum-ball machine; a nice metal basket; and a random piece of Pfaltzgraff that the two-year-old picked out. :) All of that - $46 and change (plus priceless memories made hunting for treasures with my girls). It's really important to me to teach them that God wants us to be thrifty with the monetary blessings he's given us. Showing all of our children that shopping at thrift stores isn't just something that needy people do, it's something that frugal people do and it helps us use more of our money to spend, save, and give elsewhere to the glory of God!

We don't have to get back-handed by retail price tags. Here are some helpful tips that I like to keep in mind while perusing the racks at thrift stores (because some stuff there is past it's prime):

1. Label Shop - Items with designer/higher-end labels are generally well taken care of.
2. Know when the sale days are - some stores have them and some don't. If you can find 50%/75% off days, you can score AMAZING deals!
3. Look for thrift store coupons in your local sales flyers - some of the independent shops do this.
4. Check all items for stains, holes, pilling, missing buttons, etc. 
5. Don't buy just to buy. Make sure everything you buy is something you'd really use. If it looks like something you would have donated yourself, leave it on the rack. There are plenty of items that look more worn, but there are many awesome like-new items as well. Sometimes you'll luck out and find items with tags still attached! Sometimes 
6. If you find a lot of pants in the brand/size you're looking for - venture to the other aisles. Chances are someone with your taste (who's your size) dropped off the motherlode and now it's your lucky day! Check it out!
7. Don't write off used housewares! Lots of good things in that department (barely used pots and pans, pretty dishes, mugs, specialty pans, crockpots and more). 
8. Be sure to check the book section! Lots of great books (including kids books) for under $1 usually.

Happy thrifting!

Perseverance. This is real life, y'all.

This is me. Persevering. With some coffee.

So, I dropped off the blogosphere for a couple days there because one of our littles got sick. Like, the gross, middle of the night, stand by with a trashcan sick. After hitting negative sleep levels, wardening the well-children with orders to stay back 500 feet and and following the sick child around with a bottle of Clorox in one hand and a bottle of Tylenol in the other all day, I really didn't have the wherewithal to do much more. Alas, we're healthy (right) now; so, here I am! There are three things I did do, though. 1.) Pray. 2.) Stay on my diet (I'll tell you how this is relevant in a second), and 3.) Not freak out.

1. The day our girl woke up sick in the middle of the night was a long one. I'm pretty sure I prayed all night between tosses and turns. I prayed for her healing and for sickness to pass over this house and spare our other children (and us, too, btw, we hate throwing up). Staying close with God during a trial (big or small), is SO important to our spiritual and physical health. It's so easy to brush Him off and get caught up in the "poor me, I had to clean up vomit at midnight, lose sleep and wash my hands 500 times today" routine. You know?? We all do this. It's important to seek Him, still. I'm not just speaking specifically about having a sick kid, but with anything. We should seek Him in all things - big and small. We should seek Him when we don't know what to do and also when we do. I didn't know what was wrong with our kid, but I had to trust in Jesus that she'd be ok! We are strong through Him and He will help us get through! Persevere. 
   
2. I know you're wondering why staying on my diet is relevant to having a sick little. Well, I'll tell you. Much of my previous weight gain came from anxiety (a lot of the anxiety happened during my first three pregnancies, but I assure you...little 6-8lb babies are not why I had 70 some pounds to lose). Let me tell you. If there's one thing I super hate, it's having sick kids (like anyone, of course). It is a little stressful and tempting to slip back into an anxious state - especially when you have four of them and it could turn something fierce real fast! I could have turned to food for comfort at this time. I could have binged out on some tacos, burritos and nachos when we took the sick child to Taco Bell (Her request. I know. Bad idea, btw. #parentingfail #iknowhashtagsdontworkhere) the next day. I could have scarfed the heavily-frosted sugar cookies she got to share with her class. But, through Him, I was able to persevere.  Praise God! He does these things, you know? I know from past experience that it just takes a little anxiety to consume about 8,765 calories too many and fall off that blasted wagon. Persevere. 
3. Thankfully, you guys, I didn't freak out. I did wash my hands a lot (but I think that was okay, given the circumstances), I did come in contact with gross germs (this is serious for an OCD-prone person); I prepared myself for what would happen if all of the rest of the littles got sick, I did not go hide under my bed covers; and, I did my job as mom, the job God gave me. Persevere. 

So, all is well. Our family is healed and just in time for the baby to poop ALL. OVER. MY. PANT-LEG. (and her outfit and up her back) while we were visiting brand new friends for the first time (and had no diapers or change of clothes with us). Life goes on friends, be it something monumental or poop on your pant-leg, seek Him and just persevere.

This post is linked up to Grace Laced Mondays, and Better Mom Mondays Hop on over to to those awesome sites to see who else is sharing.