Thoughts by Steph

We call him "He Who Sleeps With Books"

 

 

We call him "He Who Sleeps With His Blanket Over His Head"

 

 

We stopped in Chatanooga on the way back from Georgia on Memorial Day. We drove by Cowart Street and had to stop for a picture. There was a bus stop there as well.

 

We had a lot of fun walking around downtown Chatanooga. It's so much nicer now!

We stopped by Panera for some refreshments and took some cute photos.

 

 

 

Throughout the day I'm constantly composing blog entries - most of which never make it to my computer - and I always think about some of the things I use a lot or really like and wanted to start blogging about them. I love to hear about the latest gadgets or websites or cleaning supply or book or whatever that my friends are in to so I thought I would pass along some stuff that I really like right now.

• My CSA - Avalon Acres - www.avalonacres.com

This is my first year with a community supported agriculture program. I was a little nervous. I wondered what type of veggies I would get and if I could even identify all of them. Sure enough I'm only about a month into it and I've had a few unidentifiable veggies. I started to get frustrated then realized that Avalon Acres has a blog site that describes the weekly shares in detail including pictures, recipes and even "how tos" for cooking, baking, steaming etc. That has helped me immensely. We had a delicious slaw made with bok choy, apples and radishes with our dinner last night. Sounds funny but tasted great and James even ate some! The $30 a week I spend on meat (for 2 meals), a dozen eggs and a box of assorted fruit and veggies has been well spent and it's a great way to force my family to eat more vegetables as I begin to plan my meals around what's in my box. They deliver all over the greater Nashville area and it's not too late for the locals to join!

• Amazon Wish Lists - www.amazon.com

Jim has been putting books on his wish list for awhile now and it occurred to me that I could start my own wish list. I did this mainly because ever since I've had children my memory has never been the same. I'll think of something I want and forget it that quickly. Plus this automatically answers the question of "what do you want for (insert holiday/birthday/special day here)?" I think that all my friends should create a wish list and then we'll always know what to get each other for birthdays and such.

• My Friend Jessica's Simplicity Projects - www.ontheothersideofinfertility.blogspot.com

Jessica started doing these posts at the beginning of the year. She's chronicling her quest to get organized and simplify. Her projects have been very inspiring to me. I've been cleaning out things here and there as I could and this Saturday we're finally ready for a yard sale! Hooray for getting rid of stuff (and hopefully making a little extra $$)!

• My Favorite Mommy-Blog - www.doesmommylikeit.com

This blog reviews all kinds of kid (and mommy) related products. They are tested and reviewed by moms and their kids and they tell you the real story on whether or not they are worth your time and money. This has been so helpful!

• My Bose Speakers for my iPod

 

My in laws got this for me for a Christmas/You just had a baby gift and we use it all the time. I love being able to listen to music while I'm cleaning!

So got any cool things you want to share with me?

We're spending Memorial Day at Jim's dad's house in Dahlonega, GA. His niece celebrated her 13th birthday with us on Saturday and this was her cake. It was almost too good looking to eat, but we did cut into it. Oh yum - was it good!

We've been enjoying the mild (but rainy) weather and just trying to relax and enjoy ourselves. The kids are having fun and Jim got to go to a shooting range with his dad today. And I got to go to the Carter's outlet and enjoy the 70% off Memorial Day sale. Oh how I love to buy kid's clothes!

 

I have gottten more time on my computer in these past 2 days than in the past 2 weeks! So nice to have grandparents around to entertain the kiddos!

I hope everyone is enjoying a relaxing Memorial Day weekend!

Our Mom's Group went to the Hatcher Family Dairy last Thursday. It is an active dairy farm about 15 minutes from my house. The kids got to feed the cows and see how they are milked and where they process the milk and most importantly we got to taste milk and fresh butter. It was all delicious! The folks there were so nice and the kids had a lot of fun. I wish that I had been able to take better pictures. I had both kids so it was kind of a handful. I definitely want to go back again!

 

 

On our trip, Hannah took some great pictures of the kids. I wish I had been a little more organized and I would have had her do an entire photo shoot. She is a great photographer and I am so bad about keeping up with my kids ever changing looks. Poor Nate hardly has any pictures for the first 6 months of his life and I'm pretty sure I have 2 albums full of James. Isn't that the way it goes for a 2nd child!?!

 

 

 

What would be great is if Hannah could come to Nashville about every three months and just follow me and kids around for a "day in the life" photo shoot. I'm telling you she could make some good money with her skills! :)

My friend Kyle is always getting on to me because I constantly qualify things that I say just to be absolutely sure that I'm not misunderstood.

I'm really sick of smiling and saying how much I love motherhood because honestly sometimes it is really HARD! And when people say how cute my kids are, I really want to just respond with - "Do you want them?"

I am the mom that has to literally bite her tongue to keep from spewing profanity because her two year old just threw his crayons and coloring books on the floor (again!) and is screaming for mommy to pick them up for him.

I am the mom who sometimes has to just leave the room for a moment to regain my composure or I might just pitch my own little tantrum in front of my kids.

I am the mom who looks around at her abundantly messy house, piles of laundry, dirty floors and unpaid bills and wants to crawl back in bed and sleep it off. (and sometimes, if the kids are napping - I have!)

I am the mom who wonders who I used to be before I had children and wonders if I'll ever be that person again.

I am the mom who's really tired of always thinking of herself as "mom". I'm ready to explore my other roles (wife, friend, daughter) in greater depth and with more frequency.

See I'm already wanting to qualify all this by saying how much I love my kids, love my husband, love my house, etc. etc. BUT I know that if you know me, all that goes without saying (even though I guess I just said it - ugh, this is hard, Kyle)

Who knows why I feel so guilty sharing this? Possibly because I think I'm the only one who feels this way, but I know that can't be true.

Thank God that I'm meeting my friend Kristy for coffee tonight! I need some serious hang time with my friend! And thank God for my wonderful husband who's making that happen for me by watching our little angels. :) 

 

So after being gone almost a week and spending Sunday practically passed out from exhaustion, I woke up on Monday realizing that dinner was going to have to be creative.

A couple of months ago I discovered a great blog - www.crockpot365.blogspot.com This lady used her crockpot every day for a year and came up with a ton of great recipes. I must have used my crock pot for two weeks straight after I first discovered her blog.

Well today I decided to try my own recipe and I think it turned out pretty great.I call it "Monday Morning Chicken"

3 large chicken breasts (mine were half way frozen)

1 red pepper cut in strips (mine were frozen)

1 small head of cauliflower (compliments of my weekly CSA share)

1 small onion, chopped in chunks

1 pkg of White Chicken Chili seasoning (I used McCormicks)

1 8 oz can of tomatoe sauce

Balsamic Vinegar

Chicken Stock

I put the first four ingredients in the crockpot that I sprayed with some Pam.

In a medium bowl I combined the seasoning, tomatoe sauce and whisked in some balsamic vinegar and chicken stock. Not sure how much - definitely more chicken stock than balsamic.

Cooked on low for about 8 hours.

I served it with some brown rice. It was really good! Nice and tangy. The cauliflower soaked up all the spices and was very tasted. Jim and James really liked it too!

Then I realized that I have a bunch of eggs I need to use up (from my CSA) so I decided to try a new recipe that I got from Jim's cousin Trina's blog - Black Forest Cobbler. She found it in an old recipe book she found at Goodwill. Oh my goodness! Can you say absolutely delicious!?!?!

Black Forest Cobbler
by Annette Bomar

Ingredients:

1 pkg chocolate butter cake mix (I couldn't find this so I used a Devil's Food cake mix)
3/4 cup butter
3 eggs, divided
4 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 8-oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1 21 oz can cherry pie filling

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, beat 1 egg. Add cake mix and butter. Stir until well blended. (Should have the consistency of playdough.) Press mixture into a greased 9 X 13-inch glass baking dish. In a medium bowl, combine powdered sugar, cream cheese and remaining eggs. Pour over cake mixture. Spread pie filling over cream cheese mixture. Bake 30 to 40 minutes, or until outer edges browned and center is almost set. Best served warm or at room temperature.

We are eating this right now as we turn on the season finale of 24. Yum!!!  I'm totally thinking that Janie and Hannah would love this - it's right up their alley! :

Last week I took a road trip with my 2 1/2 year old and 6 month old - note the word "I" - as in me, myself and not anyone else but me. Sound scary? Well it turned out a lot better than I ever expected!

We left Tuesday and headed up to Louisville, KY where I was born to visit my dad's sisters. As we were heading out, Jim was able to fix the lighter in our car so that I could have power for the GPS that we borrowed (Thanks, Roger!) and the DVD player we borrowed (Thanks, Jen!) Both of which were total lifesavers! Would not travel without them again!

The trip normally takes 3 hours but we made it in 4 1/2, which really wasn't bad considering. We stopped off at McDonald's and my first challenge was how to get me and the two kids to the bathroom. Unfortunately the McD's that we stopped at wasn't much better than a gas station as far as their bathrooms went. I spent most of the time telling James not to touch anything - commands to which he didn't always obey. I was practically hyperventilating when we were finally able to get out of that bathroom. I used almost a half a package of wipes cleaning anything I could and then just praying that whatever germs were left wouldn't harm us!

The best part was getting to my Aunt Sue's house. They have lived in the same house for 33 years. It has so much personality and has the most wonderful backyard. She has several grandchildren so she was all set for the kids - even had some toys for James to play with. We sat out in her morning room catching up on family news while the kids played. She made an incredible dinner that night - roast, potatoes, carrots, green beans, pasta salad and blueberry salad (a family favorite!) and then home made brownies for dessert. I can still remember it like it was yesterday - so incredibly delicious!!

My cousins came over with their little boy, Ethan. He's 7 and he is a total trip! He is super smart and loves to talk. We sat together at dinner and I'm not sure he took a breath the whole time! James had so much fun playing with the big kids. Ethan is the cute blonde one in the black jacket.

 

 

Jenny is my Aunt Debbie's roommate and is part of the family. She came over for dinner and had a blast playing with James. She is SO good with kids. James and Nate absolutely love her!

We went to my Aunt Debbie's house with Jenny after dinner and got all our stuff put away and the kids went to sleep without too much fuss, and I did too. I was tired!

On Wednesday Jenny and my aunt had the day off work so we took the kids to the mall. The Mall at St. Matthews is super-nice and I got to experience the odor wonder that is Sephora. I guess we have one in Nashville but I've never been. I bought some make up and then we headed to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch - YUM!

 

 

The kids had naps back at Debbie's house and we just hung around the house that night. I had yummy pizza leftovers and I think I took the kids for a walk. It was so fun to just hang out with the girls and relax.

On Thursday we waited until after lunch to head to Indiana to see Hannah. It was a great trip. The kids slept for 2 1/2 hours of the 3 hour trip. The GPS made it simple to get there.

I must say that Hannah (who is my Vox friend and with whom I had only spent a couple hours with in person prior to this visit) is such an incredible girl. Here I am showing up on her door step with two whiny children and a whole car full of stuff to crash in her basement for a few days. She was a wonderfully gracious hostess and her house is so cool. They have a great backyard with a trampoline and side walk chalk, both of which James made use of very quickly. We had some yummy pizza for dinner and root beer floats (since she had tons of root beer from her recent experiment). 

By this point in the trip poor Nate was having a rough time sleeping, what with me dragging him all over creation. He finally got to sleep and so did James and so did I. I'm not even sure that I said "good night" to Hannah. I think I just collapsed in bed and woke up the next morning.

We went to Greyhouse for a coffee. That place is so awesome! Delicious coffee and great atmosphere. Hannah goes to Purdue and lives near the campus so we walked around a bit. Checked out a great shop and I bought some cards. Introduced Hannah to Smoothie King - yum! Then she suggested we take the kids to the park. Great idea since James really needed to run off some energy!

 

 

 

 

We had lunch at Nine Irish Brothers - a pub that Hannah has blogged about incessantly so I knew that I must try it. It was pretty funny bringing two fussy kids into a pub at lunch time but we managed to get some food in us before I just had to get them out and home for naps. I ate the Irish Nachos and they were incredible. I really hope that I get to bring Jim with me sometime because I know he would love this place. Definitely better than any Irish place we have in Nashville.

 

We had a nice nap when we got home (thanks to Hannah who took a fussy Nate on a walk so I could sleep!) And when the kids and I got up, Hannah and Libby had some chocolate chip cookies heading for the oven. These were the best chocolate chip cookies ever! Then for dinner Hannah made this incredible spaghetti sauce and meatballs which we ate with spaghetti squash.

By this time it was Friday night about 10pm and the kids were just headed to bed and we were just eating our delicious dinner. Hannah had to pick up Jesse from a friend's house so she had grabbed some beer while she was out (bless her heart!) and so we enjoyed a beer while trying to watch Australia which we just could not get into. Can you say extreme over acting? So not impressed. Then Todd came home and we chatted a bit before I went to sleep.

The kids were waking up earlier and earlier each morning and I think they were up by 6am on Saturday. Thankfully they were able to watch Curious George on DVD while I got a much needed shower. We packed up and went with Hannah and Libby to Greyhouse for delicious coffee and the best crepes ever. (Do you see a pattern here? All the food I had on this trip was totally delicious and wonderful!)

 

 We headed back to my Aunt Debbie's house for a little rest before heading back to Nashville on Saturday night. It really was a fun trip. It was challenging at times and I can't say that I got much sleep but it was still fun and I'm so glad we went.

 

A few thoughts on this Saturday morning..........

• I think motherhood is permanently affecting my brain. I'm either forgetful, can't get my words out or incapable of rational, intelligent thought. My solution - I need more date nights out with the hubby and adult conversation!
• Last night when I was on one of these date nights I missed my kids. Isn't that just how it goes?!
• We saw the new Star Trek film last night for Jim's birthday. IT WAS AWESOME! You don't even have to be a Trek fan to enjoy it. Non-stop action and great acting. Karl Urban was my fave as Dr. McCoy (Bones) He was awesome!
• I'm taking the kids on a road trip next week. We leave Tuesday for Louisville, KY where I'm from to visit family. They haven't met Nate yet so he gets to be passed around to all the aunts, uncles and cousins. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone. Then from there we're headed to Indiana to visit Hannahbanana. Really looking forward to that too. They are such a cool family. Maybe we'll actually get to meet Todd this time!
• My friend Kristy just became a Pampered Chef consultant and is really good at it. We had a party last week at our house. It was so fun and I got lots of great PC stuff. I'm telling you their stoneware is the BOMB! And now it can go in the microwave! Talk about dinnertime in no time - yum, yum!
• My mom has challenged me to give up bread and sugar for 90 days starting on Monday, May 11th. She's back in Morocco and is doing it there for her health. She'll be back here in early August and will reward me with a massage if we both stick to it and our goal to lose 13 pounds each. I told her I would. I'm already wavering a bit. 90 days is a LONG time without sugar! Yet I REALLY love to get a massage. Plus I really need to lose 13 pounds. I need to make a firm decision by Monday.
• We are getting SO MUCH RAIN! While I'm thankful we're not in a drought, it is a bummer that I can't get outside with the kids. James would live outside if we let him so it's hard to keep telling him "no - it's too wet outside".
• Today is Jim's 36th birthday. He is so awesome! Today is his day to do whatever he wants. I bought him a massage so he's currently there. Too bad it's rainy today or he'd probably head to the range to practice target shooting with his gun. Tonight we're going to Ted's Montana Grill his favorite restaurant. Hello Bison Burgers!
• Nate is now 6 months old and I'm pretty sure my sister-in-law has more pictures of him than I do. It really is true that you don't take as many photos of the 2nd child. I think I have about 10 per day for the first year of James' life and I think I might have 50 total for Nate. Yikes! Got to pull out my camera more often!
• I'm reading a book by Os Guinnsess called Character Counts.   It's a series of essays about Washingon, Wilberforce, Lincoln and Solzhenitsyn. I'm on Washington right now. It's great. I forgot how much I love biographies!

 

• My life is pretty great right now. I always have a lot to be thankful for - a fact that I constantly remind myself of when I'm tempted to start complaining!