March Menu

I just finished my dinner menu for March. I wasn't feeling too adventurous, so it's pretty boring. I just list the main dishes; for side dishes we always have a veggie, sometimes an additional side, and usually a salad. I just recently started getting some (free!) recipe magazines so maybe I'll find a few new recipes to try and mix it up a bit. If you want to take a peek... I moved the link to the monthly menu up to the tab section.

Disgusting

Beware! Read at your own risk! If you have a weak stomach or are eating while you read, please skip this post. And I apologize in advance but this was just too much fun not to share!

See that thing below the penny? I put the penny there so you can get an idea of the size.

Guess what it is and where I found it? Go ahead. Guess.

Are you getting queasy? Squirming in your seat? This kind of stuff doesn't bother me at all!

Alright here's a hint for you...it stinks. Need another one...these are the tools I used to remove it from where it was stuck:

Don't try this at home.
I'm a trained professional!

I have no idea how long it was there. At least a month because I thought I saw something and tried to get it out once before but it got away.

Give up...

*It's a partially calcified piece of macaroni that I pulled out of Hayden's nose this morning.*
The answer is above...between the two asterisks. Drag and highlight with your mouse like you are going to copy and paste and the answer should appear. I'll be right here waiting for your EEWWWWW!

A Little Bit of Everything

Is it Friday yet? I don't know about you but I'm ready for this week to be over! I feel like I'm living in a petri dish there are so many different germs at our house! I'm so looking forward to spring, if for no other reason than I can open the windows and let these germs out!

Last weekend the twins started with a fever that turned into chicken pox a couple days later. They got the varicella vaccine the end of January and we became part of the 3% that actually get the pox from the shot. Justus, aside from the fever and being a bit tired Saturday, took it pretty well. He only got about 5 spots and has been his normal self. Eli, on the other hand, got a few more spots (including a couple on his tongue) and was knocked flat with a one-two punch of a bad cold on top of the pox. He spent most of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday sleeping on the couch. Thankfully, neither one was really itchy and both cases were relatively mild. No one else has been affected with the chicken pox. Yet.

But I don't want to give you the impression that the rest of us are a picture of health! Everyone has a cold, even Jerry this time. If you're looking for a stock recommendation, may I suggest Kleenex? Or Tylenol? I'm not exaggerating when I say we have gone through almost two whole bottles of children's Tylenol and Advil. Thank goodness I get the stuff for free!

And just in case we didn't have enough medical drama, last night when washing Hayden's hands after dinner I noticed a weird bump on his wrist. I took him in to the doctor today and he has a ganglion cyst. They're harmless and can increase/decrease in size or even disappear over time, but the only way to guarantee removal is surgery. Since it is painless and not causing any problems for him we'll just leave it alone. BUT as long as we were there, just to make sure we got our moneys worth, I had the doc peek in his ears and sure enough he has an ear infecton!

While at the doctors office the nurse mentioned that she heard it was going to start snowing at 3pm. I should have asked which channel she watches for the weather because at 2:58pm, while we were driving home, the first flakes started. By 4pm the streets that had been clear were covered and I could barely see across the street! While eating dinner we saw a big flash! A few seconds later when the thunder rumbled we realized it was lightening. We turned on the local news to see what they had to say about the crazy weather. It was thundersnow!

Well, my little weather kiddos LOVED that! Once it was over and we turned the computer back on (we always turn off the computer when it's lightning!) we had to look up thundersnow (and call Uncle Johnny on the video camera to share the exciting weather news!). Did you know that thundersnow "while rare anywhere, is more common with lake effect snow in the Great Lakes area of the United States"? Me neither. How about this:

It is fairly rare to have convection within a temperature sounding that can support snow. The reason for this is because the lower troposphere tends to have low dewpoints and temperatures. This dry (low moisture content) and cold lower troposphere creates stability with respect to parcels of air rising from the surface.

Alrighty. Future meteorologist/storm chaser Eli loved that tidbit. After dinner, Roz had to venture out to get some extra credit for her English class by attending the school play. We got over 4+ inches of snow in about two hours so she got stuck in a friend's driveway and then ours coming home. After a little digging by her friend at one house and Jerry here, we are all now home and accounted for! Stuffy nose snores can be heard throughout the house and it's off to bed for me...

Hungry?

I made one of our favorite dinners tonight. We call it ham and cheese braid...which is a made up recipe that is basically bread dough with ham and cheese braided into it. But, as long as I had out my mixer I thought I would double the dough portion of the recipe. I used the extra dough to make this:

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

We divided up and ate the first piece while it was still warm but will save the rest for breakfast tomorrow. There really isn't a recipe...it's just a standard bread dough sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar before you roll it up! This time I used white flour but it would also be good using whole wheat. If you don't have a mixer you can just knead the dough by hand. It only took a couple minutes start to finish in my Bosch though...if you don't have a mixer and are considering one, I highly recommend the Bosch!

Crockpot Lasagna

I threw this together yesterday for dinner and it turned out great! This recipe is super fast to assemble if you have frozen browned ground beef on hand. I have been buying ground beef in 3 to 5 pound packages. I brown all the meat at once in a large skillet with a chopped onion. Once cooked, I package each "pound" in a ziploc bag, make sure it's nice and flat, and toss it in the freezer.

This is a HUGE time saver. There are so many recipes that call for browned ground beef and the hardest part for me was always the thawing and browning. Now it's all done ahead of time. I just pop the frozen meat in the microwave for a couple minutes and I'm good to go for anyone of a billion ground beef recipes. Plus, as an added bonus, it saves space in the freezer...we really need a bigger freezer!

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Crockpot Lasagna
8 uncooked(!) lasagna noodles
1 lb. ground beef or Italian sausage
1 tsp. Italian Seasoning
28 oz. jar spaghetti sauce
1/3 cup water
15 oz. ricotta or 24 oz. cottage cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Break noodles to fit and place half in bottom of greased slow cooker. Brown and drain ground beef. Stir in Italian seasoning. Spread half of meat over noodles in slow cooker. Layer half of sauce and water, half of ricotta and half of mozzarella cheese over beef. Repeat layer. Cover. Cook on low for 5 hours.

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I was a little worried about the whole not cooking the noodles thing but they were perfect! I actually forgot to grease the crockpot too but lucky for me it didn't stick at all. I hate cleaning out a messy crockpot! I used ground beef but I think it would be really good with Italian sausage and I used cottage cheese because that's what I had. I am really fond of ricotta but I couldn't even taste the difference using the cottage cheese. This was just enough to feed our family with a leftover portion for Jerry's lunch. Serve this with my famous bread and a salad...YUM!

Stuff Management Part 3: Kid Bedrooms

We have a lot of kids. Kids have a lot of stuff. Stuff can get out of hand. However, the kids rooms at our house are clutter free. Why? Bedrooms are for sleeping. We don't store toys or books in their rooms. Each child gets a stuffed animal (except Hayden who usually has three) and a book to keep on their bed. More than that and they would just make a mess. Plus toys and books are a distraction at naps and bedtime. And we are really strict about naps and bedtime here at Casa de Shown. Dirty clothes go right to the laundry room. No piles. No exceptions.

The boy's room

(Please ignore the hideous blue paint...
that was a previous owners choice...
if you're not busy come help us paint sometime!)

It is my goal to train myself out of a job and since there is so little in their room the boys can clean it themselves. Wesley can already dust and vacuum the room fairly easily and quickly, even at age 6, with very minimal assistance.

This next tip was a hard one for me but it really did make a BIG difference. My CDO* really flares up when it comes to beds. I am a "make the bed EVERY DAY" person. When I say "make" I mean tuck in the sheets, fluff the pillows, and bounce a quarter on the spread. I hate messed up beds AND once made I like them to stay that way! I'm a joy to live with I tell you!

This bed obsession was easy to deal with when there were fewer children, but as the boys grew out of the crib I was starting to have trouble keeping my own standards. Beds were made but (Gasp!) jumped on or then napped on and not remade. Aggghhh! Nooooo!

Then I noticed something. The baby's room always looked kept up. The crib was never a mess of sheets, covers, & stuffed animals and I never once "made the crib". Hmmm...why was that? The crib mattress only had a sheet, that's why!

Justus' "made" bed

So in a complete departure from all things normal, I decided to get rid of all bedding but the fitted sheets on the big boy beds. Each boy has a blanket that he uses as a cover. In the morning that blanket gets folded and set at the foot of the bed. Little boys can fold a blanket a lot easier than they can make a bed. Voila! Neat looking beds without the need to "make" them! As they get older and can make a bed without trouble I'll let them decide if they want the whole bed set up. If they don't...that's fine with me!


*CDO--It's like OCD but with the letters in alphabetical order, the way they should be! :)

My other organizing posts:
Household Notebook
Websites & Internet Passwords
Laundry & Kids Clothes
Menu Planning
Calendar
Budgeting
Stuff Management Part 1