Have you heard of lurking?

My friend Heather recently posted about lurkers and it got me to thinking that I too have lurkers and wonder who they are. Why do I care? The way I look at it, I have already met some neat new people in blog world and lurkers are friends in the making. A lurker is basically someone who reads a blog but never leaves a comment. So are YOU lurking on my blog?????

Thanks so much! I'm honored, but please, introduce yourself! Tell me where you are from. How did you find me? I promise I'll lurk on your blog if you'll lurk on mine ;) And visit Heather's blog too, please! She is the one who introduced me to blog world!

Menu Plan Monday

Laura at Organizing Junkie is hosting Menu Plan Monday again. Check out her site to see over 200 other bloggers' menu plans! Wow!

Well, when I plan meals every 2-3 weeks, I just plan and buy groceries for about 21 meals. I never know what I'm making until the day of so here are the meals we'll be eating this week:

Meal 1: Beef Ravioli in Basil Cream Sauce- easy!

Meal 2: Pasta and Sausage in Madeira Cream Sauce- another quick meal

Meal 3: Make ahead Pork Chops with Apple-Sage Stuffing

Meal 4: eating out with a gift card

Meal 5: Chicken with Rosemary Sauce

Kids' Stuff

Bubbles (not edible) by Robin Ward

My Godmother gave me a wonderful cookbook for Christmas. It was put together by Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church in Allen, Texas. That's my other aunt and uncle's church. I flipped right to the back and found some neat stuff for kids. Click here or go to the column on the right, scroll down, and click on "fun stuff for kids" for my older posts. Come back later for "goop", "finger paint", "silly putty", "sticky slime", and more. If you have something you want to share, please click on "comments" and post yours with your link to your blog.

Enjoy and have fun with your kids!

6 c water
3/4 c corn syrup
2 c dishwashing liquid (Joy works best)

Mix together and let set 4 hours to let bubbles settle. Put the bubble solution in a shallow pan and use fly swatters as bubble wands.

Impossibly Easy Cheeseburger Pie

Our wonderful friend Julia not only coordinated meals for us right after Abby was born, but she also brought us this dish. I had seen this recipe before but hadn't made it. I definitely recommend it if you are looking for something quick and child-friendly. My picky eaters liked it.

This recipe has been moved to my cooking blog

Menu Plan Monday

I'm slowly getting back to my normal blog routine now that Abby is one month old. Can you believe she was born a month ago? I'm not only finding a little more time for blogging but also some time for cooking. We have been so blessed to have friends from church and work cook for us the passed few weeks and we have found some wonderful new recipes that we'll be cooking in the future. I even ate leftovers over and over again. Let me tell you, I can think of only 2 recipes that I will eat the leftovers of but my friends can cook y'all. I'll be adding those meals another time. For now, it's Menu Plan Monday so blog on over to this site to see what every one else is cooking! My plan is nothing impressive, just something I can throw together while nursing a one month old and loving on Lauren and Caleb as well. Okay, I'll give credit where credit is due, sometimes my wonderful husband has to make dinner because Abby and I have a deal and she gets hungry just about the time I start dinner (she's a smart girl that way).

Oh yes, did I mention we are trying to pack up the house so we can put it on the market? We're quite busy around here. Perfect time to get recipes from my Busy Mom's Meals posts. Thanks for stopping by.

Monday: Touchdown Chili

Tuesday: Spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread

Wednesday: Old El Paso Pasta Salad with chicken

Thursday: Tsao Chicken with fried rice (Sam's)

Friday: Honey Sesame Dump Chicken

Blood, sweat, and tears......and more

aka Blood, snot, and tears..... and tee-tee, and poopie, and breastmilk

I really think that before every new mom checks out of the hospital, they should issue her a hazmat suit AND give her a lesson in bloodborne pathogens because at one time or another, she will have to deal with hazardous materials. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being "baptized" shall we say by ALL, yes ALL but one of these lovely bodily fluids. How did it all start, let me recollect. As I was putting down the nursing baby to catch Caleb before he fell off of the Thomas table that we've told him a "million" times not to climb on, breastmilk dripped and Caleb fell and bumped his mouth on the storage tub. There's the blood. The baby spit-up as she was sleeping and when I wiped it, I noticed it was all down her face and in her hair. Off to the tub we went and while floating on her cool baby raft (yellow sponge), she released a little poopie. Then there was the normal case of snot and tears after a good long cry- Caleb's, not mine. And as I was again nursing the baby, she tee-teed and it ran out of the leg of her diaper and soaked through my pants and panties! So the only bodily fluid I did not face was vomit! So where does the sweat come in when it is 40 degrees outside? Well, from keeping up with all the kids of course! All in a days' work.

Funny thing Lauren said

This might not be interesting to my 10 regular readers, but I think my aunts and uncles will get a kick out of it:

This morning Caleb was getting all the pans out and putting them on the table. Lauren asked me why he was doing that and I simply said, "He's a silly boy, crazy Caleb," to which Lauren replied, "Like Crazy Aunt Patty!" We had a good laugh. We love you Aunt Patty, thanks for being such a good sport about your nickname!

We are so blessed

We were very fortunate to have my mom come and help us for almost 2 weeks but we were even more blessed when my aunt, uncle, and cousins came to help us ring in the new year. Aunt Joanie is my Godmother and Aunt Joanie and Uncle Paul are Caleb's Godparents. Christy is a doctoral student at Duke (and Aggie grad), Megan is an education student at SFA, and Ryan is finishing high school. If I remember correctly, he wants to study architecture engineering....a great bunch. They are so wonderful with the kids, we never worry when the kids are with them. That's why we didn't even hesitate when they asked to take Lauren and Caleb out of the house for a few hours. After they had left I told Stephen that we've never let anyone take the kids somewhere before. They also took the kids outside to run amuck and they gave the kids a bath- not easy I assure you. We sure wish we lived closer to them so they could take the kids more often....no...I mean so we could see them more often!

Can your diaper do this?

A dry diaper weighs 1.5 oz. This diaper is holding 35.4 oz. How do you test your diaper? See next picture.

Lesson we're still trying to learn: Parents must run faster than 22 month old boys!

Caleb likes to tell us he is finished with his bath and when we get him dressed, he likes to run back to the tub. We have known this for months but Caleb has learned that the addition of his baby sister gives him more opportunities to achieve his mischievous goals! If at first you don't succeed, try....try again!

Some great recipes

I have really enjoyed trying new recipes from other bloggers. I've actually been a little disappointed lately because I haven't had the time to go look for more recipes but I know I'll just have to catch up this summer when I'm on break. If you love to cook, go check out these blogs:


Garlic and Lemon Roasted Chicken
Scalloped Potatoes and Ham
Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Soup
Angel Chicken
Crock Pot Deviled Chicken
Crock Pot Chicken Supreme
Crock Pot Enchiladas
Oven-Fried Chicken Chimichangas

Notice the Crock Pot theme? Throw it in the pot and you're done! Enjoy.

Colored Pasta and Rice

pasta or rice
2 T rubbing alcohol
drops of food coloring

Put pasta or rice in a zip lock container. Add alcohol then drops of food coloring until you get the desired color. Shake vigorously until all rice or pasta is coated. Spread out on wax paper to dry 20-30 minutes. Store in air-tight containers. Children can string noodle pasta for necklaces or bracelets. Teach patterns etc... look for different shaped pasta for variety.

Homemade Butter

1/2 pint whipping cream
very clean nickel

Pour whipping cream into a container with a lid. Add nickel. Seal container and shake vigorously for 15 minutes or longer until butter forms. Pour off liquid. Remove nickel. Remove butter onto a dish for serving or a container for storage in the refrigerator. Salt can be added before shaking as needed.

Kool-Aid Play Dough

Kool-Aid Play Dough
1 c flour
2 T cream of tartar
1 c water
1/4 c salt
1 envelope of unsweetened Kool-Aid
1 T vegetable oil

Measure carefully for best results. Mix dry ingredients in a sauce pan.
Stir in oil and water.
Stir over medium heat until mixture forms a ball away from sides of pan.
Because mixture is hot, carefully transfer to lightly floured board.
Allow to cool slightly.
Knead for one minute or until smooth.
Allow to cool completely and store in an air-tight container.

Not enough time in the day

I am definitely being challenged to have blogging time now with a nursing baby and a 3 year old and a 21 month old. On top of that, my husband works from home on our computer and so he hogs it ALL DAY LONG! So I don't get many opportunities to blog, I feel like we need a computer schedule like that old commercial where the kids are scheduled at like 4 am.

But I will be back soon with new recipes as well as wonderful recipes I've found on other blogs. I also have some kids' recipes like different Play-Dohs, etc....

Don't give up on me! Check back in a few days.