DOING A HAPPY DANCE!!!   Tommy is breathing better, he even slept through the night once again last night.   I was able to go to work today.  A good and a bad thing all rolled up in one pretty package.   ARGH!!!  Oh Well...................

Tonight for supper we ate some of my chicken patties that I had made a few weeks ago, they thawed out well and tasted just as good.  It is always scary when I cook a bunch of something and then freeze it.  I am always hoping it doesn't come out tasting like cardboard.  But either way it is quick cardboard on a night we have to be at church my 6:00 and I don't get home from work until after 5:00.

Families First was fine tonight....the instructor gave us a copy of an article about earaches.  We discussed organizing and clutter.   Seems to be a hot topic there, FLYLADY TO THE RESCUE!!!   Tommy did a first tonight!!  We were sitting in circle and singing.  I sit crossed legged on the floor and sit in on my legs.  All of a sudden he pushed his legs down and stood up.   It really surprised me and he did it a number of times!   He was laughing and talking during the circle time.  He wanted to sing like the other kids.   It was very cute....but I am a bit biased.

Meditation (which I can't even find time to do)

RELAXATION - ME???  HAHAHAHAH - You would have to know me to understand..... I don't relax well!

Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling. G.K. Chesterton

Hmmmmmm...forget coloring just let me lie in bed and read a book.  This last weekend was going to be our first time leaving Tommy with a sitter and going anywhere.   But of course he got sick and we stayed home with him.  To tell the truth, I wasn't all that sad about it.  He is too young to be left yet, right????  I don't think I could relax if we went out anyway, I would spend the entire time worrying about Tommy.   I think I have a bit of separation anxiety.  Some mornings I have the hardest time even leaving for work.  I know Tommy is home with Daddy and in the best of hands.   This knowledge makes it better, but to leave him with anyone else???   I don't think so......

So as for my meditation on relaxing......I am too stressed to relax!  GAWD!!  LOL!!  Maybe some other time....I do have a job to maintain with a large caseload.  I have a hubby and three sons.....I am a bit busy.  

GOAL::  I will be good to myself and take a bubble bath this weekend....( I will read in the tub, but the magazines look funny afterwards...but who cares!!)

Well I am off to bed.....I am working on being a bit more organized.  I have to put away my clothes hubby washed today, my dishes are washed, my lunch is packed for tomorrow.......and I told all of you about my mundane little life.  Yep, I believe that completes my day!!  GOOD NIGHT!!!

Tommy is napping as I should be too.  But of course a quick stop on Xanga was in order.  Tommy went to the Dr. this morning and the Dr said we were doing everything we could for Tommy.   His ears, throat and lungs are all good.  He weighed in at 15.3 pounds.  The Dr did tell us to use a decongestant nose spray which we diluted with saline salution.  So hopefully that will help him too. 

He just isn't sleeping well.   As you can see I changed the look on my site for Valentine's day.   I also included a couple of buttons to recipes and a page of my favorite links on the Custom Module.    I plan on updating the recipe page and frequently adding to the favorite links.   Never enough hours in the day though. 

CUPOJAVA - I need your expert assistance or anyone else's for that matter!!!   As I have said before I homeschool my sons in the summer to maintain some consistency for them.   I have great resources and materials for my 9 year old.  But I really need some ideas for my oldest who will be starting high school next fall.   Do you have any suggestions on some good books to read???   His reading level is actually tested at 13+ so he can read most anything.   I plan on having him read a book, and write about it.   But I would like some discussion questions or a guide for the book.  Do you have any suggestions for a website or a book???   He could use a little help with math, though he really does good in school and it very knowledgable.  He jsut hates to write.....so of course that is what I will be making him do.  What a mean mom I am!!!!!!!!!  

Naptime for Mommy.......................

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The greatest honor history can bestow is that of peacemaker.  - Richard M. Nixon 

I tend to do a type of cooking called OAMC (once a month cooking).  I do cook more often than once a month, but I do freeze meals and do cooking sessions.   My cooking sessions are usually based on a whatever meat is on sale, etc.  OAMC is a great money saver.   It also ensures that even though I work my family has a good nutritious meal.  A great website about OAMC is Deb's OAMC 101 Site.  The recipe below is actually a recipe I adapted a bit to my family from her chicken plan.  She uses whole wheat flour which my family doesn't care for.   My hubby doesn't care for purchased nor McDonald's nuggets, but he loves these.

 

Jen’s Seasoned Chicken Nuggets

 

·  3 lb. chicken -- deboned and skinned

·  3/4 cup flour

·  3 teaspoon parsley flakes

·  1-1/2 teaspoon tarragon

·  1-1/2 teaspoon sage

·  3/4 teaspoon salt

·  3 dash pepper

·  3 egg beaten OR 1/4 cup egg substitute

·  6 tablespoons milk

·  3 cup bread crumbs

Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Cut the pieces in 1 inch pieces. Combine the flour, parsley, seasonings thoroughly and put in a small plastic bag.
Add chicken pieces, a few at a time to flour mixture. Close bag and shake pieces to coat them.

Combine milk and egg in a small bowl. Put bread crumbs in another bowl. Dip the flour coated pieces, 1/4 at a time, in the egg/milk mixture and then roll them in the crumbs.

Place coated chicken pieces in a single layer on a large ungreased baking sheet. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 - 12 minutes until pieces are no longer pink and the juice runs clear.

 

FREEZE: on clean baking sheet. Remove to a freezer bag when frozen. SERVING: Remove what is needed and nuke for 30 seconds or bake at 400 for 5 minutes. YIELD: Gallon Ice Cream Bucket of Nuggets. 

Hello........(YAWN)  busy, tiring weekend around here.  Friday was pretty mellow.  Tommy ended up waking in the middle of the night a number of times, but seemed to go back to sleep ok.  

Saturday we were all tired from not sleeping so well.  I did manage to finally get the 5 pounds of chicken breast I had in the fridge made into Chicken Nuggets.   I have a whole ince cream bucket of them in the freezer now.   Festival grocery store has the 3 lb. bags of boneless chicken breast on sale, so I think I will buy some and make a few more chiecken dishes to freeze.    I will post the recipe for the nuggets.  They are very good and WAY cheaper than buy processed nuggets, not to mention way healthier as they are baked vs. fried.

Saturday was a fairly warm day.  We ran to Target to complete a few errands.  We never did get to take our walk as it really didn't get warm enough.   We did watch the movie American Pis 2, which was pretty funny.

Saturday night, I ended up staying up a bit too late.  Big problem since my sweet baby was up at 1:00 am unable to breathe.  He was so congested and coughing.  He would wake himself up numerous times.   I ended up calling the peds line and they said to suction his nose (been doing that), use saline in his nose, run a humdifier in his room and elevate the head of his crib.  We did all that, but he still had trouble sleeping and it is not like he likes getting his nose suctioned.  So I was up for the day at 4:00am.  I have a feeling I will be up with him again tonight. 

He has a Dr appointment tomorrow morning at 9:10.   Today we didn't make it to church since Tommy wasn't feeling well.  I made a interesting Italian pizza, that I will have to share the recipe for that with you too....it has artichoke hearts on it....but is really good.  

Well I am off to type up my nuggets recipe for you............NIGHT!  

Busy week, glad the weekend is here...........

I hope to have a fairly relaxed weekend.   I do need to try to do a couple of reports for work, maybe a couple hours on Saturday and a couple on Sunday should do it.

My fun plans for the weekend....we rented two movies, Legally Blonde and American Pie 2.   We plan on going for a walk with Tommy tomorrow since it is suppose to be over 50 degrees here in MN!  I want to make a batch of cookies and chicken nuggets.   I think that is all my plans for the weekend....that should be plenty. 

Well I think I am off to bed to flip through the mound of magazines I got in the mail yesterday....................later!

hello.....pretty busy day here.  I got to work around 9:30 and got home from work at about 6:45 from a late meeting.  now, I am breaking one of my rules and completing a ISP (report for work) at home.  I hate to bring work home........

Well the faster I get the report done, the sooner I can head to bed.....Later all!!

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There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.  By being happy we sow anonymous benefits up the world.                      - Robert Louis Stevenson

I am about to get ready for bed, so I thought I would stop in and blab about my day, like I am prone to do.   I had to be at work this morning for a mandatory section meeting...yep I hate those.   I had to miss the community baby shower at ECFE because of it.  Of course hubby took Tommy to it and come home with some great resources.   He wants to sign up to take a baby class with Tommy on Friday mornings.   The class we have at church is good, but the kids are older so the ECFE one is only for children 0-6months.  We decided to attend both classes. 

Paul loves to go to these mommy classes.     It was him and 15 mothers and babies.  LOL!!  They all gush over him about how sweet it is that he stays home with the baby, etc.  He won three drawings there too.  One for a toy, a book and a onsie.  I am lucky that he stays home with Tommy and is such a wonderful father.  He is so cute when he sings and does all the actions for the songs for Tommy at Families First...LOL!!!

I am so very lucky that my employment is so flexiable.  I will be able to attend the Friday morning class with Paul and Tommy fairly often.  I will just have to flex my time.  I would never give up my job, it is so ideal while raising a family.  Though I am not sure I will be there until I retire, I will be there until Tommy is much older.

Families First tonight at church was good.  There were not as many people there tonight.   The discussion was more of just a checking in process.  How are you doing emotionally, physically and spiritually?   What goal are you setting for this year?

Well time for me to head to bed.....and I have a confession....my sink is sooooooo very NOT shiny!!   Oh well, hubby says he will do the dishes tomorrow...we will see.

Night all!

I just received this recipe in my email.....I plan on trying it this weekend.  I will let know what I think.......sounds good.

Top Secret Recipe version of Claim Jumper® Meatloaf
                                                         by Todd Wilbur

       Here's a great meatloaf recipe to add to your impressive mealtime repertoire. This luscious loaf combines ground chuck with ground pork along
with bread crumbs, green onion, garlic, carrots and green pepper for one of the best flavor experiences you'll get from a good old American loaf of
meat. Use one of those perforated nesting meatloaf pans if you've got it so that the fat drains out into the pan below. If you don't have one a regular loaf
pan will still work fine. But use a large one. This recipe makes big, beefy portion.

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 green onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons minced green bell pepper
2 tablespoons grated carrot
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 1/2 pounds ground chuck
3/4 pound ground pork
1 cup bread crumbs (such as Progresso)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup ketchup plus an additional 1/4 cup ketchup (for top)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sauté green onion, garlic, green pepper, and carrot in vegetable oil over medium heat for a couple minutes.
3. Combine beaten eggs with milk, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder in a medium bowl.
4. Mix bread crumbs and flour into ground chuck and ground pork with your hands. Add egg and milk mixture, sautéed veggies, 1/4 cup ketchup and
mix it up using your hands. Get in there and squish it all around for a while. Enjoy yourself.
5.  Press the mixture into a meat loaf pan (the kind of pan with drainage holes in the bottom) or a large loaf pan. Bake for 30 minutes, then spread 1/4
cup of ketchup over the top of the meatloaf and bake it for another hour. Let it sit for a bit after you remove it from the oven before you slice it to
serve. 

From: http://www.topsecretrecipes.com

Serves 8.  

Hello Xangaland....

Today was a good day!   My hubby called me at work today to tell me he found a website for the State Of MN Commerce and on the site they list MN residents with unclaimed property.   He called about the unclaimed property and it was a payroll check from 5 years ago for over 700.00.   What great timing!!  Now I can't be mad about the more expensive mouse or the upgrade in the cable.  LOL!!  God has a great sense of humor, ya gotta love that. 

So check out the site below to see if you have any unclaimed property in your state that is owned by you!!! 

www.missingmoney.com

I found that one of my brothers and my ex-husband have money owed to them.   Pretty interesting.

ok..enough about that.   BTW...Thanks God

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Ok my day was been pretty good, work was fine.   When I got home I babysat my niece and nephew, Kristi and Nick.   My hubby had night school tonight so it was just me and the kids. 

I have to tell you a few funny Nick stories....he cracks me up sometimes.   My nephew for those who are new to the blog is diagnosed with autism.   He at times obsesses a bit on things   (huge understatement).   He is constantly following me around and asking me questions.  Nick's autism is such that he is very very intelligent, but had difficulty in other areas.   So he is following me around tonight.  He says, "Auntie I went to occupational therapy today" ....cool......Night continues to tell me how he doesn't get dizzy no matter how much he spins, but this therapist does.  OK, so he wants to know why that is......everything is why.   So I say "because you are a very special boy Nick".  Ok...yes, I know that the inability to get dizzy is related to his autism and sensory things, but he doesn't know what autism is or that he has it...  So Nick ponders his specialness for a bit ...and his last question is......drum roll please................."auntie, does God get dizzy??'  Hmmm....saved by Josh who tells Nick, I don't know I have never been to God's house.  Nick says, well when I go to God's house I will find out. 

Few...made it through that question session...the other sessions were, how does a signal get from the satellite to the TV, etc.  (I don't know!!)  Then he happens to have difficulty with sleeping and he was up last night at 3am .  and saw an old 70's sesame street...and is very concerned about why Big Bird looks different...........

I can't continue my writing right now, Tommy is screaming....must need to burp...............motherhood calls.......

More later....I know you are in suspense

WHEW....the weekend is over, actually this is my birthday weekend extravaganza.  Yep, I milk that fact that I was born...LOL!!   My official birthday was on Friday.   It is official I am 30 years old again this year!

FRIDAY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had to go to the Dr on my birthday, go figure.   Paul and kids made me supper.  We had lasagna and garlic bread.   Then Paul made a killer hot fudge brownie delight thing!!  WOO!!!  the rest is a chocolate induced haze....hmmmmmmmmmmm...

I spent the evening hanging with the kids.  I received a watch (really needed one badly) and the book "Super Baby Food" as I was really enjoying the library copy and found it to be a great resource.  

So I headed to bed early to read it!!

Joshua went to a lock in at his friend's church.  And of course will be staying up all night!   Paul, Erik and I played electronic Uno for the evening until Tommy decided he needed attention. 

SATURDAY

Tommy didn't think I should sleep in today.   It was ok as Josh was banging on the door at 7:00am when he returned from the lock in.  He of course crawled in  our bed and slept the rest of the day.  Today was a busy day for me!  Paul took care of the baby most of the afternoon so I could organize the basement.   This is one of the gifts I asked for, for my birthday!    Weird ain't I??  

Josh helped me and we conquered most of Tommy's play room.  Yes, Tommy (infant) has a play room.  My hubby went nuts with buy toys for the kid...LOL!!  Josh and I boxed up about 10 boxes of toys and organized them according to age levels.   There were too many toys in there and my niece and nephew would come over and trash the place.  I will rotate toys in and out.  I took out 1/2 of the kitchen stuff, it is much more manageable. 

Julie, Dale and kids came over when we were about done with the toy room.   They brought me a cashew and caramel sundae from Culver's for my birthday and a little snow globe that says "queen of everything".  I am the queen of my own little world over here, just ask my hubby!

Next I started cleaning out the school stuff in the dining room.  We homeshool both our kids in the summer in lieu of summer school for Erik.   And Josh does well in school we just do it to torture him or so he thinks.    I boxed up all the preschool and kindergarten stuff as Erik is past those.  Erik is in the 3rd grade this year so we will mostly be doing 2nd and 3rd grade stuff with him.    Hubby found a great website for some lesson plans that I might try this summer.   Check it out.........

SUNDAY

I was up early for church, go figure since we stayed up late.  The service was nice.  I always enjoy Pastor Marlyn.  Tommy even made it through the whole service with only a bit of fuzziness. 

After church we went out to eat at Old Country Buffet.  Paul and I headed off to Target to buy a couple of bins to store stuff away.  We also needed to buy a new mouse for the computer.  Ours died, we have cleaned it a number of times, but not it just went hay-wire.   I of course look at a nine dollar mouse and say good enough!   But Paul spots a Optical Mouse without the ball thing.   Do you really have to ask which one we ended up needing to buy???   ARGH!!!  

I think we are upgrading to digital TV too....hmmm...how do I *always lose on these items??   Digital TV is less than 5 dollars more a month and included alot of the educational TV channels we like to watch like Discovery kids, Discovery Home, etc.  Right now Dale and Julie will tape stuff for us on the various Discovery channels we want to watch.   We already watch alot of Discovery and History Channel in our household, now to add 4 more Discovery channels...LOL!!  OH GAWD! 

Josh and Erik both had friends sleep over tonight.  ALways a treat   Actually there were ok after I told them to not wake the baby a few thousand times.   I could hear them playing hide and seek in the laundry room below my bedroom.  

MONDAY

Erik and Josh went sledding with the neighbors today.  I was actually surprised by Erik today.  His Sue Mom was coming to pick him up at 1:00 to go to the movie "Snow Dogs" or something like that.   He called her and told her he would rather go sledding.   I was surprised I really thought he would want to go to the movie.   The boys had a sleep over last night so they all slept in.  Paul and I didn't do much today.  I started cleaning out the filing for the year 2002.   Finished organizing the school area on the dining room.   Other than that I spent alot of time with Tommy. 

Tommy discovered a new thing today, he was fussing in his crib after his nap.  All of a sudden he stopped fussing as I was going in to get him.  I ask myself what could have calmed him???   OH how cute!!  Tommy discovered his thumb and how to suck it.  It was cute.

I also finally got all my knickknack sort of things back in the entertainment center, since we had xmas stuff in there.  Every year I put less things in there.  I look at the items and go, hmmm....do I really want this???   Does it really mean anything to me or am I just keeping it because someone gave it to me?    Well the verdict is out, have of the stuff was in there because someone gave it to me.  So off it went to my garage sale pile.    We are planning on having a garage sale in May.  Hopefully we will be able to sell alot of my maternity clothes and baby stuff as well.  

I go through these phases, where I throw everything out of the house that isn't nailed down.  LOL!!   I seem to be in one of those phases, so watch out.