FOR BRUNCH TODAY......

FRENCH TOAST

6 Eggs
1-1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup milk
6 tablespoons maple syrup
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
One loaf of Texas Toast Bread
butter

In a shallow dish, beat together the eggs, sugar, milk, maple syrup, and cinnamon with a fork until well bleneded.  DIp each piece of bread into the egg mizture coating completely. 

In a large skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of butter over medium heat.  Cook the bread a few at a time for 2 to 3 minutes per side or until golden brown.    I personally have an electric griddle that I use to make these.  It holds 8 pieces at a time, so this goes pretty fast.  I do not put any syrup on these when I eat them as I think they are pretty sweet already.  Hubby and kids still drown it in syrup.  They love these!!

This recipe makes a triple batch of french toast as we freeze individual ones in a sandwhich bag for breakfast throughout the week.  Simple warm in the microwave and you have a very quick breakfast.   What a time saver and Tommy actually eats then very well. 

Now for supper tonight.....

Easy Vegetable - Beef Soup

1 pound of ground beef
1 14-ounce can beef broth (1-2/3 cups)
1-1/4 cups water
1  - 10-ounce package of frozen mixed vegetables
1  - 14-1/2-ounce can tonatoes, cut up
1  - 10-3/4-ounce can condensed tomato soup
1 tablespoon dried minced onion
1 teaspoon dreid Italian seasoning, crushed
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

In a large skillet cook beef until brown.  Drain off fat.

Transfer meat to a 3 1/2 to 4 quart slow cooker.  Add the remaining ingredients to the cooker. 

Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 7 to 8 hours or on high -heat setting for 3-1/2 to 4 hours.

**I substituted ground turkey for the beef and chicken broth for the beef broth.

From: Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes

NAPTIME....my favorite time of the day.   Before nap I watched a TELLETUBBIES video with Tommy that he checkout from the library.   Man are those things boring!!   But I iced my back and he snuggled with me.  After the show was over it was nap time.   He went down for his nap at 1:30 so I quickly cleaned up our coffee table which took exactly 15 minutes.   Now I have a nice cold diet mt dew and some free time in my newly cleaned bedroom.  AAAHA......life can't get much better. 

I have a couple of recipes from today to type up then I will probably read and fall asleep for a few.  Gotta Love naps on Sunday afternoons. 

Home from church.  I made it through the service.  It was too painful to stand towards the end so I just sat.  It was so good to be back at church though.  I missed it.  

Now I am going to put some soup in the crockpot and make some french toast for brunch.     Then it is nap time and time for me to ice my back and relax.  

Later!  

I made this for a quick supper for Friday.   One way to speed this up it to have cooked chicken on hand.  I sometimes will cook a bunch of chicken breasts and chopped them up and freeze in 1 cup portions in ziplock bags.  It makes a dish like this very easy.

Pretty quiet night in our household.    I made Special Pork TEnderoin, garlic mashed potatoes, corn and vanilla pudding for supper.   Josh and Erik washed up the dishes from supper.  We watch "What Woman Think" on TNT and made Icee's.   Erik has been dying to make ICEE's.   Tommy had never made them, so he was very excited.  He had a hard time waiting.  But it was worth the wait for a taste of pop!!!  

WisconsinMom to answer your question...How do  I get Erik to do chores as discipline?   We have tried many, many forms of discipline to try to get Erik to stop stealing.  NOTHING as worked.  Grounding ,  time outs,  writing pages of I will not steal and bible verses, no TV, no Computer for extended periods of time.   Recently his bio mom started having him do extra chores when he steals.  I don't see that this works any better, but I get some extra things done around the house.   Erik is a fairly compliant child.  I tell him he needs to do chores because he took something that didn't belong to him.   He knows if he grumbles or complains he need to do even more chores.   Today I had him wash dishes, there were very few.   Vacuum the steps and livingroom.  Sweep the kitchen and bathroom and shake out the rugs.  It took him about an hour.    Mind you he really doesn't do that great with these chores so I still will need to do them again when he leaves.

Then he was free to go play.  I did also ground him from the computer.   I let him keep TV and his scooter since he had done the chores.   To be honest none of this seems to deter him from stealing.  The one thing that I finally told him today ( though I disagree with it) was if he steals one more thing while at our house I will take something of his.    We are sort of at out last ditch efforts since nothing we do works.   I told him I wanted him to feel what it felt like to have someone steal from him.   My hubby had mentioned this before and I always said no as I thought it was wrong for a parent to steal, since it was like saying stealing is ok.    But at this point no common sense punishments work, so why not try the more non common sense.   I can't figure out how this child thinks for the life of me.  he doesn't really truly understand others feelings.  He can repeat back to you about their feelings, but he doesn't seem to understand it.   So if he takes something, he will lose something.  I think that might be concrete enough to deter him.  He hasn't stolen anything that I am aware of since Friday night.   He also went to bed about 30 minutes early on Friday when I found out he took something. 

One thing you will find out about me I am always honest about my life.  My children aren't perfect and I don't paint the picture that they are.   Erik has many problems, but maybe by my being honest about this someone will say. "hey my child used to do this and here is what worked."  I am out of ideas. 

ROFL...I suppose your sorry you asked now WisconsinMOM....all of my children are pretty compliant and do as I ask with little complaining.   Power struggles are fairly rare in our household.  Though Tommy might be the exception...too young to tell.     But I have all boys.  I do see my SIL having many, many power struggles with her two daughters.   I wonder if it is a boys vs. girls thing???

 I am trying to relax and take it easy.  But since I am feeling a bit stir crazy.  I am laying on my bed in my clean, dusted and decluttered bedroom.   I might take down the curtains and wash them tomorrow.  I have to sweep out the closet as well.   I am going to start reading a bit of the book my SIL picked up at the library for me.

Later...soon need to start supper. 

Just watching my neighbor children putting each other in a trash can on a skate board and pushing each other down the drive way.  ARGH!!  It is going to be a long summer.   I just told Erik DO NOT let them convince you to go in that it is not safe!   Erik is very easily talked into things.  He said I wasn't going to.  I told him that was a very smart decision.

The other day those same children had gotten a shopping cart from some store, spray painted it and were pushing each other down the driveway.   Of course it runs into the curb and then tips over throwing the child.   ARGH....I had to go and make them stop the other day as they were pushing the cart towards my rental SUV, that is all I needed.    

Of the families on our street my hubby and I and one other family are the most strict with our children.  We have them in the house by 10:00, etc.   Some of the children on our block run around all hours of the night and they are younger than my oldest son who is 15.  My son is the oldest on the block.   It is hard, but we are standing firm on our rules.  You have to.  

I just finished cleaning the corner in my bedroom.  Now I will read my book and ice my back for the rest of nap time.  Hope everyone is having a great day!

Finally I have time to sit and ice my back.   I fed Tommy lunch and then my SIL came and took him to the library with her.  So I have some time without my little man to ice my back.    Hopefully he will be ready for a nap when he returns from the library.  

Josh has his girlfriend over for the afternoon.  They are playing a card game in the kitchen.  I will be icing until Tommy comes home and then while he is napping I will be working on decluttering the corner in my bedroom.  It is sort of the catch all for everything.   I will need to dust and straighten the closet while he is napping  tomorrow.  I might even get to read for a bit.    I really can only be doing stuff for about 15 minutes at a time. 

This morning I spent 15 minutes in my bedroom thinning out my bookcase.  I decided to donate a ton of my books I had not gotten around to reading.  I tend to go to the library alot so I figure I will bless someone else with these books. Now that my hubby is working he has less chances to garage sale so I can empty out my house.   To me less is more!!!   The rest of my family doesn't feel that way though.   I had the vets come last week Wednesday and they picked up about 20 bags and boxes of stuff I was donating.   I already have two more grocery bags to donate.  I suppose I should call and get on their list again.   I am not doing a garage sale this year as I want this stuff just to be gone, now!!

Well Josh, Amy and Erik are playing Uno in the kitchen so I think I will head to my bedroom and read and ice some more.    Later!

I am so lucky to have the family I married in to.  My hubby had to work a double shift last night.  He worked from 10 am to midnight.   I actually not sure what time he got home.  I was fast asleep.   I was going to have my SIL come over to help me out, but decided against it since she would have to bring all three of her children and I wasn't sure that would be alot of help.  She surprised me by coming over at bedtime to get TOmmy ready for bed for me.   She is so wonderful!

Last night went pretty good.  Josh helped with Tommy, but Tommy decided to fall asleep on the way home from daycare and slept until about 7:30.    So Josh didn't have to watch him too much. 

Erik ended up being sent to bed early since he took some things that didnt' belong to him.  This morning he is doing extra chores.   He isn't even here three hours and he takes something.   This is really getting to be a problem.  Actually it became a problem a long time ago.  he was suppose to have his first appointment with the psychologist on Friday, but the psychologist was sick.   Worked out better for us that is for sure.   Erik is doing dishes now, and will be vacuuming stairs in a while and shaking out the rugs.   I can't think of much more for him to do and my hubby wants him to do an hour of chores for stealing.  

Tommy was up really late.  I jsut put him in bed with me and let him watch a video.  I actually cleaned up in my bedroom for about 15 minutes.  I finally put Paul's clothes away since I discovered he wouldn't be doing it any time soon.   Of course he couldn't find any thing this morning and had to wake me to ask where I put his sweatshirts.  LOL!!

Josh helped with the kids until about 8:30 and then he went to a friends house for a bonfire until 11:00.    I usually make him be home by 11:00 since that is the latest I seem to stay awake.  I like to be awake when he gets home so I can know he is in the house. 

Me.....I am not feeling quite as sad being laid up.  I am making sure I am showering and dressing each day.  I also try to do a few chores about 15 minutes each a few times a day.   I hope to work on decluttering my bedroom some more today.   I need to go throgh the bookcase and straighten up the headboard.   I can do that in little bits between icing my back.  Since I am hanging out in there alot maybe that will help my spirits. 

My hubby is working all day again today.  He should be home around 5:00.  He works about 12 hours on Saturdays.   My SIL is coming to pick up Tommy and taking him to the library with her and her kids.  Not sure if Erik will be going or if he will still be doing chores. 

I haven't been able to go to church in a few weeks.  I really really hope I can go this Sunday.  Well I suppose I should get busy and try and get my shower done.   Later!