Spills and sleepless nights

 Oh today is just not my day.  Last night Emma woke me up at 3am,,I do not know why she does this.  She's been doing it quite often.  She wakes up and runs through the house(sounding quite like a crazed elephant), stomp stomp stomp super fast in a dead run, so I know shes coming before she gets there. She has to come all the way across the house to get to our room.  Does she try to crawl into our bed?  NO.  She knows she not really allowed to do that.  She wakes me up(although shes already awoken me with her stomping run through the house) and says "Mommy, take me back to bed".   Now really, what is the point of that besides to just wake me up?   I know shes only 5, I know she has probably woken up and having trouble getting back to sleep, but all that just to make sleeping me get up and follow her back to her room and tuck her back in and turn on her music box.  This is almost a nightly occurrence.  I guess it wouldnt be such a big deal accept for once I get up and go back to bed I have such a hard time falling back to sleep.  I lay there dog tired but toss and turn and think of things,,things I need to do, things that are emotionally bothering me, last night it took me 2 hours, so from 3-5am I was laying in bed feeling bad cuz I wasnt very nice to her this time when I took her back to bed, thinking about the food I was going to make today to put in the freezer for  quick meals for the kiddos in busy times, thinking about missing my dad, wondering why he doesnt call or come around, thinking I need to be a better mother......seriously people my mind races.   And this normally doesnt happen unless Im woken up by the lovely Emma.  ugh...   Enough of that,, just so you know, I love her to pieces and I'm just venting because I'm tired and dont know what to do to make it better.

So fast forward to 6:30am,, Jess wakes me saying I need to write her a check for a yearbook,,I get up do that, send her off to school, hop in shower to get ready cuz fairly new babysitting girl is coming at 7:15 this morning.  Before I'm even out of the shower Emma is up,  once new girl arrives shes crying and sad,, She doesnt like her mom going to work and is having a hard time with it bless her heart, but it sure makes for a long day.  I hope this wont last long!
I didnt mean for this to be a day in the life post so lets skip forward to around 10am, I start my getting ingredients out for my marathon baking and spill almost a whole container of cocoa powder all over the kitchen floor,,, what a stinking mess!!!  That was not easy to clean up, especially when I have to tell a 1 year old to stay away and out 500 times while Im trying to clean it up and every time I tell him to get out he throws a fit.  (deep breath)  First I get the pancake sausage muffins done, then corn dog muffins, and applesauce bread!  I sure thought it seemed like more than it looks like here

LOL   the hot dogs in the muffins arnt really a surprise are they?

I gave the kids some corn dog muffins for lunch along with some peaches and chex mix,, they really liked them.  Im hoping to put the rest accept for maybe a few cuz I know Gary is super excited to try out those muffins when he gets home from school today, in the freezer.  Soccer season is starting and things are about to get crazy here!
After I got the kids started I got my lunch ready, leftover crock pot fried rice and grilled chicken from last nights dinner.  Ben made sure to save me some so I could have some for lunch.  I was so excited,,, put it in the microwave(which we keep in the laundry room due to lack of space in the kitchen), got it out.  It smelled so good! I was carrying it out to the table and low and behold that bowl slipped right out of my hand and spilled all over the floor!  :(
I was so sad I could have cried.  I didnt even bother cleaning it up, the dog was already there enjoying what I was supposed to be eating... So instead I tried out the corn dog muffins I made and they were really good so I ended up eating 2.  Plus some hummus chips with hummus and raw carrots and grape tomatoes.  Over 500 calorie lunch that was only supposed to be around 300.  
Lets hope the rest of the day looks up,  ,I think we are going to Apple Bees for dinner tonight for a treat so at least I dont have to cook anymore!

And I hope you all dont think I'm a terrible mother now for complaining about Emmas sleeping habits.

Homemade poptarts

So the kiddos had school canceled Monday due to snow(Spring is here but the snow and cold weather are also still here :(  Anyways we have been talking about taking a try at making homemade pop tarts and I decided today was the day.  I am loving Laura's recipes and cant wait to receive her book I ordered in the mail! I mixed up the dough and let the kiddos help with the rest.  We decided to fill them with strawberry spreadable fruit and nutella! (notice the flowers in the background? Bennie was sweet and got them for me the other day, just because) 

Here's a few on the pan waiting to go in the oven.

Emma pressing the edges with a fork to seal them.

Enjoying the fruits of her labor!  Still not a low calorie snack but the ingredient list is all healthy and homemade so I feel better about serving these as a snack instead of the boxed poptarts.

And just because,, here's a pic of my girls..  I love when Jess helps out and acts loving with her sister :)

Soup and the Ballet

Remember that chicken in the crock pot from my last post?  Well from that one chicken I made a crock pot full of chicken broth that I froze some of, and then I turned the rest of the broth and leftover chicken that we didn't eat the night before into yummy homemade chicken noodle soup!  I kept it simple, chicken, broth, noodles, carrots, onions, and seasonings simmered on the stove for a couple of hours.  It was yummy.

 Saturday we were treated to the ballet.  My mom bought tickets for all of us(thanks Mom).  It was Cinderella, the girls really enjoyed it as did I.  The only problem was I had nothing to wear.  My old dressy clothes are way to big and sloppy looking but we managed to throw some pieces together and I didn't look to bad. :)  The shirt and skirt were some of my sisters old things,, mom had the skirt, it was what she had worn to her high school graduation.  New to me though :)

 They didn't let us take any pictures during the performance but I took a couple beforehand.  Jess and Emmas smiling faces

 And me and Amira :)

Afterwards we went out to dinner.  Yummy Mexican food!  I splurged on my calories and just ate what sounded good.  Yum

Life in pictures

We've been busy.  And I didn't wanna go to long without posting so I decided to post some recent pics from my phone for you guys...
Here is Ms Emma hangin cool in the car reading her books

She just looked so darn cute I had to snap a pic!

Here is a pot beans ready to be cooked and transferred into re fried beans without the re fry.   There are pinto beans, a whole onion, lots of garlic and some seasonings. Then I filled up the crock pot with water, turned it on high for 4 hours, then low for about 2 or 3 hours.  Then I drained out just a little water then used a potato masher to mash it all up. .It was delish!!  It made a ton so we froze some and ate some. :)

Here is me.  Ben told me to send him a picture while he was at work on Friday and I was busy so just snapped this one of myself really fast.. He asked how many times I took a pic to send him because he said this is the best looking picture of me in a long time.  lol..  I dont see it.  But its sweet of him to say that.

And here is Gary and Emma, we went to the Home and Garden show with my parents yesterday and they had a little booth with a real live tortoise.  The lady asked Emma if she wanted to pet it and she wouldn't but Gary did!  Arnt they just the cutest kids!

Now I'm waiting for Ben to get home from work, then we are gonna have lunch then hit the gym.   Its day 2 of our free 7 day membership at the fitness center.  It was sooo nice working out there yesterday and having all the options of the different machines.  

Mason Jar smoothies

It doesn't take much to get this mama excited.   Someone really should have been here to here the scream that came from me today.  I was minding my own business, killing some time browsing pintrest(which by the way if you haven't discovered yet I highly recommend it!  I came upon this picture,,, showing a mason jar on top of a blender..hmmmmm,,,  I immediately started feeling the excitement and had to get right up and find a mason jar.   I found a regular mouthed one and walked my curious self right over to our blender..   Unscrewed the bottom blade part from the regular container and tried to screw it on the mason jar.   That is when the scream came out... Screams of joy!!!!!!  I really wanted to try it out right then but had to wait until later after my workout when I was going to have my protein shake.. (have to use my calories wisely).

Finally it was time,, first I put my goodies in the mason jar, one frozen banana, one scoop of chocolate whey protein powder, a few ice cubes, and some water.

Then I screwed on the blade part being very careful not to stab myself :)

Sit it right on the blender and tada!!!!!

Yummy!(That would be the arm of my husband in the background wondering why he married such a crazy freak that gets excited about using Mason jars on the blender)  He loves me!

Pure happiness right there... Who doesn't wanna drink right out of the Mason Jar(must be my southern roots showing there),, and I didn't have to dirty up the blender and this jar can easily go right into the dishwasher!  Sorry I look so utterly horrid,, this was after my workout remember and I never look pretty after all that sweaty-ness! Speaking of workouts,, only 6 more left of Jillian Michales Shred! Yay!  This level is a killer!

And in all the excitement Emma kept bugging met to take a picture of her with the lanyard on and with her little bear she found in her toy box today that her brother and sister got her when she was first born in the hospital.  Isn't she the cutest?

Whats the silliest thing you have gotten excited about?  I know I'm not the only one....

For more kitchen tips visit Tammy's website She always has great tips!

A fit family and our menu.

Another weekend come and gone,, almost half way through Feb!!  It really is true that as you get older life just moves on faster.  And the weekends sure do fly by.  Through the week our days are pretty much the same,, get up kids go to school Ben is at work, I babysit until 5:30 every night which then we have dinner, clean up dinner, workout, get kids ready for bed, watch a little TV, wait for 3rd shift babysitting girl to come and then go to bed to get up and do it all over again.  The weekends are always a little different and as of lately working out is part of those also.  I am really happy that fitness has taken over our household.  I cant believe I'm saying this but I am loving being active.  I really cant  wait until the weather warms up some I we can get outside more often and take walks and I"m dieing to go hiking somewhere.  Tennessee and all those hills are really calling my name.  I bet we could tackle them a lot better now than we did a few years ago! 

Jess and I right before doing The Shred.

 

We took a little sneak peak at level 3 of the Shred and since the mats were open Emma decided to do some of the stretches with Evil Jillian.

Saturday the sun was out and even though it wasn't really warm we took advantage of it and the whole family went for a walk. Gary wanted to ride his bike.  We went for 2 miles!  Our ears and cheeks were frozen but its all good.  I loved getting some fresh air. Emma was whining on the way home about being cold and tired but hopefully this summer when its not freezing she will be more into it. 

I really wasn't this far behind everyone, my shoe was untied so I stopped to tie it and snapped a pic while I was back there. 

 

Ive decided to start posting our menus again like I used to.  Keep in mind that lunches are always subject to change, just depends if we have leftovers or not and what the kids and I are in the mood for..I also don't always eat the same thing as the kids in the mornings and lunches,,if you want to see exactly what I eat find and add me at myfitnesspal.com  my user name is everydaymom. 

 

I also always have a veggie or two at dinner but dont always right then down on the menu plan because we just have whatever one sounds good that day. :)   More or less nothing is written in stone,I just like to have a basic plan.  This little markerboard came with a calander set my mom got me for Christmas,, I love it for posting our menus on the fridge. 

If you need some dinner inspiration check outhttp://orgjunkie.com/ There are tons of menu plans there every Monday morning

Saturday happenings

Oh lovely Saturday.. I love them.  No extra kids here besides my own.  Ben worked this morning, and he has to work tomorrow.  He's bummed, but it sure helps out with money.  This morning the kids and I slept in , had breakfast, then Jess and I did the Shred.  Shes been doing it with me, which helps out.  Its always more fun to have someone suffer along beside me :)  Then we all took showers(cuz we were sweaty and stinky), and then Ben came home.  We had lunch, cleaned up, then made our grocery shopping list.  Tomorrow is super bowl Sunday we planned out a fun and fattening filled day for that, then made the menu plan for the rest of the week.  

All our lovely fruit, I love when we get home from the store and have a overflowing fruit basket,, although it wont look like that for long,, This wont even last until next weekends shopping trip.

 Shopping took forever!! The stores were packed,, guess people were stocking up for super bowl?? When we came home we had dinner, then decided we needed desert.  So Jess was looking online for a recipe and I suggested we look at momto9's blog.  She has yummy deserts  We found this recipe for heavenly bars.. 

Cooking at home makes for lots of dirty dishes

 The bars turned out just as heavenly as promised!  Jess did a great job as always.  I don't even want to know how many calories were in that little square I ate. Good thing we exercised this morning!  

My nice clean shiny sink! (wanted to make sure everyone knows I don't leave a  messy kitchen for to long!)

PS..   For the whole entire time I've been typing this Miss Jessica has been sitting beside me making fun of me and the way I type and write and spell and talk,, and shes laughing right now..  Good thing I know she loves me deep down.

Shred update and a date night

Yummy sushi oh how I love thee

Honestly I could eat it every single day!  Ben and I finally got out for a date night Saturday night...We went to Noa Noa, it was our first time there and I loved the atmosphere and the food was delish!  Plus we only had to pay less than $10 because I had a gift certificate from one of my childcare families!  yay!  It was nice to just be us.. Ben said it was nice and quiet,, no kids fighting, screaming, no one saying ewww that looks gross(something Emma has been saying quite often since I've been trying to cook healthier lately).  We just left the kids at home(something I feel blessed to be able to do now that Jess is older and can watch Emma).  We dont stay out long when we do that just in case and Jess had a phone to call us if she needs us. 

 

 

Here is sweaty old me after doing day 6 of the 30 Day shred!!

The soreness is getting better even though I feel like need a hand rail to get up and down off the toilet most days because my legs are so sore. LOL   Its so worth it though.  I'm feeling stronger everyday!  I feel so good and actually look forward to the workout!  I cant wait until the weather gets nicer here so I can get out and take more walks again.. I'm contemplating attempting to jog again this summer... It hasn't worked out before but I'm willing to try again.  I'm just happy,, happy to be taking better care of myself!  Oh and finally the initial gain after starting the program has came off,, I'm pretty positive it was my sore muscles retaining water.  So I've been drinking lots of it to keep it moving along,,, the only problem with doing that is I have to pee all the time!!!  ugh

Weekend birthday party



We had a great weekend.  We had family over to celebrate Emma and Gary's birthdays.  We had the party here at our house and I made food and Jess made the cakes!

 

 

She did a amazing job!  She wants to study culinary arts in school! Its nice having someone else that likes to cook around the house although she prefers to make deserts I think,  Which is fine and dandy unless you ask my waistline. LOL

It was nice to have everyone over to our house.  I'm so glad everyone could make it!  The kids both got things they wanted and everyone was happy I believe. 

 

My family has been begging me to make granola bars again... that's right, we don't buy those anymore either.  this is the recipe I have been making.  Everyone likes it accept for Gary, not sure why.  I cut them into 24 bars and they come out to 120 calories.  I do want to try some different things out and see if I can make them healthier.  This recipe uses butter,, I'm wondering if I could replace it with coconut oil.   Here are the bars setting up before I cut them

 

 

 

And here they are in the "cookie jar". (which we never have cookies in)

12

Playing video games, one of his favorite things to do

The middle child. I hope little man doesn't feel that cliche of being looked over and forgotten about. Being the only boy and stuck in the middle Im sure can be hard. He isn't really the mama's boy I dream of having but that's ok. Hes defiantly a daddy's boy. They go hunting and fishing and play video games together, all that boy stuff. Im pretty sure if it came down to him choosing
between me and his dad he would for sure choose his dad but I guess thats ok. I know I love him and Im pretty sure he loves me. Ill just keep working on him trying to root into his life lol.

Hes actually home sick from school today. Running a low grade fever :(. Not a fun way to spend your birthday.
For dinner tonight we are having meatloaf, cheesy potatoes, and corn, his favorite! And this weekend we are going to take him to a local seafood restaurant that serves sushi. He loves it and so do I. One of the things we have in common :)

My new Mixer is on its way!

I got the email that this is shipping out to me today!!!!   Yay!  It's a Kitchenaid Pro 600 Mixer!  I'm so excited!  I've wanted on for about as long as I can remember, but with the cost of them it been out of the question.  Well hubs knows how I've wanted one and he told me I could order myself one for Christmas,,, I had declined  because of the money but then yesterday found out about a amazing Cyber Monday sale that amazon was having.  The normal cost for this bad boy is $499.00.  I got it for half that plus a $50.00 mail in rebate! When I saw that I called him in to show him and told me to go ahead and order it!   I know it will get good use here in our house and I'm really hoping it will last a long long time!  Now I can ask for some of the awesome attachments for my birthday!  They have ice cream maker, pasta maker, food grinder,,,all different cool attachments you can get to go with it!   I'm just so excited for it to get here and start using it up!  Just in time to whip up some goodie treats for Christmas!
Anyone out there reading this have one?   Do you love it?  What do you use it mostly for?

Busy days and other thoughts

 Man, how time flies by,,, seriously everyday I think I will have time to sit down and blog for awhile but my days are consumed with cooking, cleaning, childcare...lots of childcare!  My work is never done,,and thats ok, it sure can be exhausting sometimes though!  

Our weekend went well,, super busy.  Saturday morning the kiddos had a dentist appointment... That went well!  NO cavities,, although the dentist did say that we really need to get the 2 older kids in to see a orthodontist.  I knew this but had been putting it off but now that the dentist has said it I feel like we really need to get started,, I was trying to get a few other things paid off before we have huge ortho bills.  Gary has a tooth that should be through but isnt coming through though, and Jess has teeth coming in in crazy places due to lack of space in her mouth.  So the time is now I guess. 

 After the dentist we went straight over to my moms for my step-dad's birthday party.  That was fun,, he had sat up a 9 hole golf course in the yard and we all did that,, we also did some jump roping,,, hilarious and fun!   Then Sunday the kids and I went with mom and Dave, and Grandma and Grandpa  to Stone Trace,, its a historical site and there is lots of booths set up there and very educational...the kids loved it!  Here is Jess stirring and making apple butter like they did in the old days. 

 Emma getting her face painted

 We didn't go bowling this weekend but I felt like I needed a pic of Gary in here and apparently he sneaked out of all the photos this weekend. :)

Life is hard but good.  I'm so thankful for what we have and have been trying to make the most of it.     I remind myself daily to appreciate what we have and try to not want so much more,, we are so blessed for what we do have!
I'm also working hard to not get upset over Ben(hubby's) crazy work hours, and other commitments he has,, not to get upset over his lack of enthusiasm over what we do have and his constant wanting more and more.  Leaving it in God's hands to help him realize these things.  My constant nagging gets us nowhere but in arguments.   I must go on and try and have a cheerful attitude!

Weekned and our menu for the week

We had a pretty good weekend.  It went by way to fast.
Friday night Ben worked, so he slept Saturday for a while,
while he was sleeping I was cleaning.  Then Saturday
evening my sister and her husband came over for dinner and to hang out for awhile.  It was fun.  Emma just

 loves her Aunt Dawn and Uncle Johnathan.  I made taco salad and tacos for dinner.  Then we just hung out, sang karaoke and had a camp fire.  We were up late so Sunday was a lazy day.  We slept in and layed around for most of the day.  I did manage to get out and get some groceries for the week. 

On Sunday our cable box stopped working completely. :(   So until we can get someone to come out and fix it its just netflix in the living room for us.  Its not to big of deal for me.  I've been hinting around to Ben that we have been having so much trouble with our cable company we should just cancel it completely.  He doesnt agree though. LOL.   This week is our towns fair.  I think were going out to it on Tuesday night,, thats kiddie day so all rides are just a dollar.  Besides that I dont think we have any plans.  I really need to start limiting our trips into town so we can save our cash.  I need to fully focus really hard on building our savings and paying off debt.  I've not been doing so well with that lately so I'm gonna be going gung ho!!   
Here's my menu for the week:
Monday-B-zucchini muffins, sausage pattys
              L-hot dogs, mac n cheese, frozen fruit
              D-BBQ ribs, baked potatoes baked zucchini sticks, peas
Tuesday-B-cereal
              L-make your own pizzas
              D-? not sure if we will eat at the fair or not
WednesdayB-waffles
                  L-noodles
                  D-sausage lentil soup
Thursday B-cereal
               L- tater tot casserole
               D-BBQ chicken, pasta salad, green beans
Friday-B-pancakes
            L-homemade version of hamburger helper
            D- hamburgers