Making memories

I've got corn coming out of my ears...:) Not really but granny brought over more today, so we bagged it up again tonight. Everyone, with the exception of Emma, helped. Jessie bagged the corn and Gary labeled it. I was really not looking forward to doing it but once we all started it ended up being fun again. Gary even said it would be a hard decision of choosing between doing corn and going fishing. If you know Gary and how much he likes to fish that tells you how much he enjoyed it. Its funny, such a simple task can be such a big deal to the kids, its wonderful. I hope that one day when they are with their children cutting corn off the cob to freeze they will look back and remember these times we had. Gary said he would and that he will tell his kids that he got to write on the bags with permanent marker!:)
I am really trying to stay patient and calm with the two older ones, I all to often hear myself snapping at them for things that aren't really their faults. I think since Emma's been born I've been harder on them and defiantly expected more from them. Don't get me wrong I still think they should help, but I need to remember that they are only little once and they need to enjoy it. Although Jess cant get enough of helping. I think she just enjoys the one on one time with me. And even though sometimes it would just be easier if she would let me do it myself, I am trying to let her stay involved because I know that one day she's gonna probably think she's too cool to hang around with mom. I'm not sure what I'll do when that happens.
I just want my kids to have a great childhood and good memories with me. I hope I am doing right by them and they will look back later in life and remember me with love.

Corn

My grandma brought over a bunch of corn yesterday for us to eat/freeze. I had a whole laundry basket full. We waited until Emma went to sleep for the night to do it so it would be easier due to she has been extra cranky in the evenings for some reason. So we were up until 10pm boiling and cutting corn of the cob to bag it last night. It was kinda fun though, hubby helped so that was super nice of him, I would of been doing it til eleven if he wouldn't have helped. Jess wanted to help cut it off the cob but I was afraid she would cut her fingers, I told here maybe next year. We got 12 bags, I put about 3c in each bag. So I thought that was pretty good. It was so pretty all yellow in the bags stacked up on top of each other, I know I'm goofy but I get a kick out of simple things like that. Plus it was free!!!! So that was a blessing, she said we might get some later in the year. She is bringing me some green beans today,, so guess what I'll be doing today:)

Menu

Ok, so here is my menu for the week, it took me a really long time to come up with this for some reason, I guess I am just uninspired this morning. So don't be surprised if something changes around throughout the week:

Mon-smoked pork chops, fried zucchini, corn on cob, homemade bread
Tues.-roasted chicken, roasted potatoes, salad
Wed.-zucchini pizza casserole
Thurs-BBQ chicken pizza
Fri.-fish, macaroni salad, green beans
Sat. Veggie lasagna(frozen) never tried it hopefully its not to ichy, its been in my freezer quiet a while and I really just need to use it up
Sun.-ham steak, sauteed zucchini, ???something else, just not sure yet

So there it is, we did excellent not eating out last week, the only time was Sat. for lunch we went to Quizznos, I had never been there before it was really good.

Our weekend

We had a great weekend. Sat. morning we did some shopping in town. Made my weekely CVS run and did pretty good. Then we went to Walmart, and Marsh. We all went and the kids did a great job. Then we went home to get ready for our get together with my cousins that I never get to see enough of. We all decided to meet at the lake and everyone just bring their own picnic dinners. We decided to do wraps, we had some leftover steak from Friday night so we cut that up and wraped it with lettuce, tomato, onion and cheese. Oh yeah, we drizzled steak sauce on there too. It ended up being very yummy!!!! It was so nice to see everyone. Bennie and Gary did some fishing.



Gary ended up catching a nice little bass but it wasnt big enough to keep.

The kids really enjoyed the merry go round, but as it turns out it is quiet dangerous. There were about 3 kids that flew off and got hurt throughout the day. Nothing to major though.

Then on Sunday we went over to moms and grandmas and worked some in the garden. I am very proud of my zucchini plants. This is the first year that we have ever planted it. The vines sure do get big. And we are really getting a lot of zucchini from it. Jess and I shredded and froze some this afternoon to make breads with it throughout the year. If anyone has any good recipies for zucchini let me know.

I think grandmas garden looks pretty good this year. Its fun helping tend to it.

Just a swimmin....

Here are some pictures of the kids out at moms swimming the other day, they just love the pool, this is Emmas first time ever in the pool:


And jess and Gary



Isnt she just the sweetest thing in her little cherry swimsuit!!



The summers just fly by so fast anymore, Its hard to believe school will be starting in just a few weeks. Normally I am ready for them to get back to school but this year I'm kind of sad, Jess is such a big help around here I will defiantly miss her during the day. And Gary is great at bringing a smile to everyones face. They are excited about getting back to school though to visit with all their friends.

Banana Bread

This is very good, and the fun thing is you don't only have to use bananas, you could use whatever fruit/veggie that you need to use up. When I made this yesterday I used bananas and strawberry yogurt, it was exellant. I will use this recipie to make zuccini bread when what I made yesterday runs out (which by the way the crew has been eating it wont be very long).



*2cups all purpose flour

*1cup ww flour

*2cups sugar

*1 t baking soda

*1-3t. cinnamon

*1/2 t baking powder

*1 t salt

*3 beaten eggs

*1 cup oil

*1-3 t vanilla (to taste depending on what fruit or veggie you use)

*2cups mashed banana or whatever you want to throw in there:)

Pour into bread pan or muffin tins, Bake at 350 degrees for around 50 minutes for bread less for muffins. This makes quite a bit, I make 1 loaf of bread and 12 muffins out of 1 batch. It freezes well also.

Happy Friday

Oh how I love Fridays!! Knowing we made it through another week, everyone is happy healthy and good! Cant ask for much more than that. I'm in a good mood this morning because my husband text me this a.m. and told me he loved me and couldn't ask for a better wife. How great is that! He hardly ever says things like that so I must have done something right..I'm not sure what it was though. Actually I work hard everyday to go out of my way so he knows I love him. Its usually something little and he might not always realize what it is but I do try. Today is my grandparents 55th wedding anniversary, and I just think that is awsome. I hope I will celebrate my 55th anniversary one day too.
Yesterday I made the best banana bread. It was so yummy, I think I will share the recipie with anyone out there who might want it. But it will have to be a little later, I've got a hungry baby I need to tend to right now....

Wed. morning

Good morning. I enjoyed a nice evening with my sister and niece last night. Both of our husbands like to fish so the boys went fishing while us girls stayed here at my house and had dinner and let the little ones play. We both have babies, mine is 6 months and hers is 8 months, but she was a preemie so she is actually smaller than my Emma. They are so cute together though. We lay them on the floor and they try to grab and eat each other. It is so funny! I hope one day they will be great friends.
I made chicken Parmesan with home made bread sticks for dinner. It was very yummy! I had to change my menu around, we were supposed to have steak but there wouldn't have been enough for everyone. We rarely ever have steak but it was on sale the last week, so I bought it for a special treat. Anyways so we will have our steak on Friday now. Tonight is BBQ chicken on the grill. I am very excited, we all love that, It is a popular meal around here in the summer. I like it when Ben cooks outside on the grill, my kitchen heats up something fierce with the gas stove.
I'm going to be doing laundry today. It looks like I will be able to hang it outside without having to run and take it off because of the rain. I have been hanging it outside in attempts to save a little money on the electricity bill. But, I don't ever think its soft enough so when I take it down I throw it in the dryer for about 5-10 minutes, just to fluff it up a bit. Hey, its still better than drying it in there for the whole time right? I do a lot of laundry, at least 2 loads everyday, I just don't know where it all comes from. I like laundry though. Well I'm off to get started.

Freezing Green Beans

Well, I had a new adventure today. I froze some green beans from the garden. I had never did that before, it was actually fairly easy. In the past to preserve our beans I had pressure canned them. In my opinion freezing is the way to go. Although I havent tasted them yet, but I will be sure to let you know how they taste when we do. Here is the steps I took to freeze them:
1. String the beans. (Jess helped with this).
2. Rinse the beans.
3. Boil water. Put the beans into the boiling water for 3 1/2 minutes.
4. Remove beans from boiling water and place into a icy cold bowl of water for 3 1/2 minutes.
5. Put beans into plastic freezer bags, remove the air, zip them up, and label them.
6. Freeze. Walla!!!!

Very easy.

For more kitchen tips visit ... tammysrecipies.com

Menu plan

So hear it is, my dinner menu for the week, It is my big goal to stick with it this week. No going out to eat!!!

Menu Plannig Monday:
Mon.- eat at moms
Tues- sirlion tip steak, baked pot., garden green beans, corn on cob
Wed.- BBQ chicken(on grill), fried zuccini, garlic potatos
Thurs.-Chicken parmesian, homeaid breadsticks,
Fri_ veggi soup, cornbread
Sat. lasagana, italian cheese bread
Sun.-leftovers

Welcome

Welcome! I have started this blog to just release some of my thoughts and to let people in on whats going on in my familys lives. I'm a stay at home mom and have 3 children, a wonderful husband, a dog and a guiena pig. We live in town but our goal is to have a house in the country with lots of land and animals. I am really trying to be frugal and simplify our lives. My husband isn't really on board with that yet but I'm sure he will get there eventually. I love staying home with my kids, I dread the day my husband no longer wishes for me to stay home. I do babysit fulltime for 3 other kids so I bring in some income. That is part of the reason I am trying to save money so I can stay home, I think as a sahm that is part of my job. I have so much more to write about but for now I got to keep busy, Thanks for stopping by,