New Year's Resolutions

Usually the few days after Christmas are a bit hard for me.  Visitors have left (or if we were visiting, we're headed home), Christmas decorations come down, and mounds and mounds of laundry needs to be done.  It's the let down after the fun holiday season.

This year, my husband planned a short getaway for the 2 of us after Christmas which was such a wonderful idea for a couple of reasons.  One, it was nice to have something fun to look forward to after the Christmas festivities ended, and two, it was such a GREAT way for the two of us to recap 2010, plan for the upcoming year, and discuss things we want to work on, etc.  It was GREAT!

One of our resolutions is to do a better job of leaving work at work when we get home.  In this age of email and smart phones there is the potential to work 24/7 from anywhere at anytime.  While this is a perk in some ways, it's a detriment in others.  He and I are both guilty of working during what should be our family time in the evenings.  When you only have about 3 hours with the kids in the evenings between coming home from work & bedtime, every minute counts.

Another thing he and I are working on as a couple is joint teaching an adult Bible class.  He and I have different skills sets when it comes to teaching - he is far more of a didactic, lecture type instructor while I am much application focused.   We want to develop a Bible class with a didactic and application component.  We are working on developing the curriculum and hope to teach it next fall.

As for me, I am always looking for better ways to organize and become more efficient.  Two of my biggest struggles are meals and exercise.  For me, I have to exercise 5 days a week to manage stress - if I don't I can't sleep at night and I start feeling down.  I really need to do a better job getting it in before 6AM in order to maintain productivity over the rest of the day.  This is such a challenge for me b/c even though I'm an early riser I have a hard time jumping up out of bed and immediately hitting the treadmill.  I hope to get better at this over the next year - starting Monday (I'm on vacation until then)!

As far as meals, it's really really hard to plan and make healthy meals for my family with a busy work & family schedule.  I'm using the next few weeks to do a lot of reading on different eating styles, child nutrition, and meal planning techniques to hopefully improve this over the next year.  I'll share some of the things I find that work for us.

My resolution list continues with things like putting more time into my BSF study so that I can dive deeper into God's Word, and completing an Olympic distance triathlon this year just to name two.  With training and racing, I'm going to limit my training time to summer b/c that is when I have the most time. Trying to train during the semesters just adds stress to our already busy lives and eats into family time.  So, I've set my sights on an Olympic tri in Sept and will hit the training hard at the end of May.

So much to think about for 2011!  Happy New Year!

Christmas 2010 - Last Post!

Christmas for my 16 month old was wonderful because of one thing...the food.  Although he enjoyed ripping the paper off his presents, he was vastly more interested in the cookies, pies, and festive holiday foods.  This is no surprise given that this kid can EAT!  In addition to the food, my little ham reveled in all the attention he received from his aunt & J (and everyone else).  

Dad got some new warm running pants, a couple of West Wing DVD's, a certificate to pick out a new blue ray player, and the biggest shared gift for both he & I was a brand new LED TV for our room! In the past, I was adamantly against having a TV in the bedroom, but after 3 kids and a dog, my views on that have changed.

As for me, I got a new camera, a cheese grater (my old one was shot), a beautiful new fry pan (I LOVE cooking and cookware), the TV, some gift cards for clothes & Starbuck, and then from my husband - a night away for the 2 of us at a nearby resort.  He arranged for overnight childcare and everything!  We're going tonight!  Yippee!

The day after Christmas my mom, sister, and I braved the crowds for a girls shopping day.  Although the crowds were evident so were the sales and we were all thrilled with what we found!  The next day, my sister & J left and my parents went looking for rental condos and properties since they are considering spending several months of the year out here.  We would absolutely LOVE that!  Hope your Christmas 2010 was wonderful.  Have a Happy New Year!

Lastly, I wanted to share the best recipe from our Christmas.  It was for a fried turkey.  While we fried a turkey for Thanksgiving, my sister & J & my parents wanted to do another one for Christmas so they could take part in the fun.  I didn't mind at all!  So, for our fried turkey here is what we did - it was DELICIOUS!!!

Fried Turkey
large turkey - thawed
brine: heavily salted water
spice injector kit for turkey (found in sauce/rub section)

Brine turkey overnight in heavily salted water (it should be pretty salty - only a little less than sea water). Remove turkey from brine and inject with spice kit.  Set up fryer outside in a safe area.  You'll need plenty of propane (we had to make a propane run at 8:00 Christmas eve!  Not great planning!)  Make sure turkey is COMPLETELY dry (our wasn't this time - we had some fireworks) and then fry for 3-5 mins per pound in a hot oil (between 325-350 degrees).  Let bird sit for 15-30 mins before carving.  This was the  best turkey we've ever had!

Christmas 2010 - 4yr old perspective

My oldest son had a good Christmas.   This was the first year that he had a hard time waiting until Christmas to open the presents under the tree.  He only had one request from Santa - and that was for a new Leapster game.  His Aunt L actually came through for that one while Santa brought him a new bike.  In addition, he received a couple of new games, several new toys, some cool Spiderman slippers, new clothes, and a guitar.  We have so many people to thank for making this a special Christmas for him!  Thanks Grammy, Papa, Aunt L, Aunt D., Nanima, Dadaji, my sister & J., and of course...Santa! :)

Christmas 2011

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  Ours was special for several reasons.  First, it was the first Christmas in a couple of years that my family came to spend Christmas here.  We have been blessed this year not to have to travel on any of the major holidays.  The second reason is that my sister brought her boyfriend with her - he is such a great guy and he made this Christmas even more fun!  My kids are going to be heartbroken when they leave tomorrow - they had so much fun with them.  Aren't they a cute couple?!?

We kicked off Christmas eve day with my husband and I being able to go on a run...together...with no baby joggers - it was as good as a date!  We ran a little longer than we normally would have just b/c it was so nice to be able to talk uninterrupted!  After the run, my mom, sister, and I took the big kids to the movies while the boys stayed at home and prepped some items for the following day.  We saw Tangled and it is a really cute movie!

After the movies, we can home and decorated cookies for Santa.  I had intended to do our big family meal that evening, but we had a couple of setbacks with the turkey (we did turkey instead of ham...SO glad we did - I'll share the recipe later - it was AWESOME!) so I decided we'd have the big meal on Christmas Day.

Christmas morning was a little chaotic since my early bird 4 yr old came downstairs before anyone else was awake and got into one of his presents.  We ended up opening presents in shifts.  We opened for a while and then when the kids got overwhelmed we took a break, then resumed opening, etc.  It worked out wonderfully and made the day very enjoyable and meltdown free.  As you can see from below, the kids were good this year so Santa came!

Below are a few of the pictures from Christmas morning.  I'll share more in the next few days.  My daughter was thrilled to get a Lalaloopsy doll from my parents.  My husband's parents got her a MSU cheerleader dress which she liked some that day, but since it was one of the last that she opened was not nearly as excited about it as she was today when she "re-discovered" it.  She can't wait to wear it and her big new matching hair bow!  She also loved her Barbie Car from her Aunt L (her baby brother did too, and several fights ensued as a result!) and her hair bows & interactive books from Aunt D.  She also got several movies and some play makeup, and a princess purse.  My little athletic girly girl was thrilled with her bike from Santa (she took to it like a pro!) and all the dolls, princess things, and girly items she got for Christmas.  Thank you so much grandparents, aunts, and of course, Santa!

An Exciting Morning!

Today is my first day off work for the holidays!  I'm off until Jan 4th!  Hooray!  My parents arrived last evening and we had planned a day of Christmas shopping and holiday baking while the kids were at school.  That all changed with a phone call at 5:30AM!  Some of our dear friends were expecting their 4th and it was TIME!  So, my husband left in his PJ's to go get their 3 kids while our friends dashed to the hospital.  Our plans immediately changed and instead of day with no kids, we've had 6!!!  It has been a blast!  Since everyone was awake super early, my husband went out for provisions and brought back some donuts.   Below is breakfast for 5 (my daughter was still asleep).

We spent the morning playing, baking cookies, and building spaceships and robots.  Right now, the 4 big kids are outside playing while the 2 babies are napping.  After lunch, we'll have movie time until their Dad comes to get them.  Baby Jacob was born very quickly after they got to the hospital and grandparents arrive this afternoon.  I'm so happy and excited for them!  It was a wonderful exciting morning!  Soooo fun to have a house full of kiddos!

Merry Christmas! How much they grow in a year!

How much they grow in a year!!!  They're getting so big!  Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Last year....

Now....

Girl's Night Out, Snow, and the "Paper-News"

Last night was fun in several different ways.  First, last night was a pre-Christmas girl's night out.  We shopped and then ate dinner and chatted.  Love these nights out w/my friends - they are such a blessing to me!

The weather yesterday finally turned Christmasy!  We had snow on Thanksgiving, but then a warm snap had taken over.  Finally yesterday it turned cold & snowy!  It was snowing buckets when I was driving home from dinner last night.  Although not much accumulated, the beautiful snow really enhanced the holiday spirit!

My daughter is a night owl, so my husband let her stay up until I got home last night.  We have been letting her stay up a bit later than her brothers so we can get some one-on-one time with her (my boys are early to bed, early to rise kind of kids so they hit the hay a little after 7!).  Anyway so last night after I got home, she helped me open the Christmas cards we had received that day and asked to keep one of the letters.  She kept folding it and saying, "Look mommy!  It's a paypoo noose!".  My husband and I kept looking at each other wondering what in the world she was talking about until I asked, "Who else has one?".  She immediately grinned and said, "Papa!".  It was then that I realized she was saying "paper-news" and what she meant was a newspaper! She slept with her "paper-news" under her pillow and still had it with her at breakfast this morning. :)

Crazy Conversations

Last night our house was pretty crazy.  My son's piano teacher had come to give him his lesson.  My husband and I were both running late getting home from work.  My younger son had decided not to nap well that day and was not in a good mood.  I was rushing around trying to get dinner on the table.  During the hustle and bustle I noticed that my 3 yr old daughter was wearing a different pair of pants than what we sent her to school in that morning.  When I finally got around to asking her about it, the crazy conversation went something like this:

Me:  "Honey, are you wearing someone else's pants?"
Daughter (enthusiastically jumping): "Yup, sure am mommy"
Me:  "Why are you wearing someone else's pants?"
Daughter (spinning in circles): "Cuz mine were wet."
Me: "Why were your pants wet?"
Daughter (happily jumping again): "Because they were, and my panties were wet too!"
Me (slowly realizing what probably happened): "Did you have an accident at school?!?"
Daughter (enthusiastically): "Yup, sure did mommy! I tee teed in the sandbox!"
Me (stressed thinking about how in the world her school was going to clean out the sandbox and realizing that I hadn't sent extra pair of panties to school with her in months): "Honey, how did it happen?  Did you forget to go potty?  Whose panties are you wearing?!?"

It was then that the said really happily, "Mommy, I get to wear special blue panties!".  She then dropped her pants and my husband and I realized she was wearing a pair of blue boxer briefs!  I guess the "extras" they keep around at school are all boy underwear.  The visual of my girly daugher with her painted nails and big hairbow wearing a pair of boxer briefs was hilarious.  My husband and I got a good laugh about it. As for my daughter, she was thrilled that she got to wear her "new blue panties" until bedtime.  What a crazy conversation!

My recipe of the week is a crockpot beef vegetable soup.  I never really followed a recipe for this one, so it may be just one that my family likes, but it's nice and warm on cold winter evenings.  I usually fix some cornbread to go with it.  It serves us twice.

Crockpot beef vegetable soup
beef stew meat
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 stalk celery, sliced
2-3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cup corn
1 cup peas
1 can tomato sauce
worcestershire sauce (a couple of TBS)
salt & pepper to taste
water to cover

Throw everything in the cockput and cook on low all day.  Salt & pepper to taste before serving.  Enjoy!

Alignment

After the birth of my last son in 9/09, I started running again very quickly...as in a week later.  Hey, when you're delivering your third it's true that you are pretty much back to normal with lightening speed.  My eagerness to pound the pavement created some alignment issues in my right hip as a result.  What started as a slight ache has progressed to sharp pain and difficulty lying on it at night.  So here I am, 15 months later and finally going to the doctor about my hip which is slowly but surely getting worse.  Thankfully, it will just need a little alignment work and I can continue to run through the treatments.  I've been advised not to train for anything, but to just keep mileage the same - which is fine with me!   

What amazed me was that the second I walked across the room, the doctor knew what was wrong by the way my right leg rotated outward ever so slightly (I never even noticed I was doing that!).  Also amazing is that just a slight imbalance in muscle strength or flexibility can over time create some pretty substantial injuries.

Looking back over my posts since starting this blog in the summer, I can see that there were and still are a lot of alignment issues that I struggle with in many different areas.  It's neat to be able to look back and see what has changed since I posted about a particular subject.  Many areas have changed and improved, but some areas are still a struggle. 

As a working mom of 3, organizational strategies to balance family and work will always be a challenge.  Things with this have definitely gotten better but I am continually looking for better and more efficient ways to run our house.  Thankfully, I have some very dear sweet friends who are great at listening and recommending strategies to manage the daily juggle.  I'm SO thankful for them!

BSF has been wonderful for rekindling my love of Biblical study.  I really enjoy the challenging guided questions, the wonderful lectures, and the awesome group of women with whom I study.  I struggle with the time (Monday evenings) b/c it's hard to leave my husband alone to feed and bathe the kids.  He handles it like a pro, but I still feel a little guilty. 

Living away from family is still gets me down.  The alignment that needs adjusting is really internal for me - I need to handle this better and also to humble myself.  But in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter and that my heart & mind needs to be free of pride and of thoughts of what is "fair" and what my kids "deserve".

Here at work, I struggle with aligning my teaching/scholarship/service activities to make me a more productive faculty member.  I just attended a seminar that discussed this issue.  Scholarly activities are my waterloo and tend to get put on the backburner not only b/c I find that work more difficult, but also b/c I don't enjoy it as much as the other two branches. 

As far as the hip goes, I have my first alignment session on Friday - and have been given homework (stretching and strengthening exercises) to do daily in the meantime.  I've set some alignment goals for myself as far as balancing work/family over the next couple of months and am praying and working hard on my attitude toward family and living away from family.  At work, I have some strategies in mind for helping align my three primary areas for better productivity.  I hope to improve alignment in all areas over the next year: spirituality, family, work, and body, but it will always be a work in progress. :)

Angioedema

Last week, the night before my husband's work Christmas party I was busy baking for the event.  I tried a recipe for thumbprint cookies that called for the cookies to be rolled in walnuts before baking.  My son absolutely LOVES thumbprint cookies so he gleefully asked for one as soon as the first batch came out of the oven.  Little did I know that the walnuts in the cookies would cause this (his lips are not normally that large)....

Now, I lecture about angioedema (drug induced), but have honestly never seen it first hand until my son's lips swelled up to the size of a Muppet character's after eating that tiny amount of walnuts.  Thankfully, we had antihistamines and an oral steroid at our house so I was able to dose him appropriately and his lips were normal again by the next morning.

After that scare I began searching for a yummy thumbprint cookie recipe that did not contain nuts.  The recipe I used 2 years ago did not have nuts but the cookies did not hold together well and were a bit too crumbly.  My sweet boy was so sad that he couldn't have any more of the batch I made for the party and I felt so sorry for him.  Below is the recipe I tried today and the cookies turned out wonderfully (not crumbly & uniform shape!).

Thumbprint Cookies
1 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 egg yolks (reserve whites)
jelly (I use strawberry)

Cream butter, sugar, eggs, & vanilla.  Add salt & flour.  When dough is formed, roll into balls and dip into egg whites (slightly beaten).  Place on a cookie sheet and press thumb to make an indent.  Fill with jelly (it takes very little) and bake at 350 for 15 mins.

My son enjoyed them today with no allergic reaction - just smiles and yummy noises.  Now that's what a mom likes to see and hear! :)

I also tried a roast chicken today for the first time.  It turned out really well and was surprisingly easy to fix!  Below is what I did - I haven't repeated it yet, but will likely make this more often b/c buying a whole chicken is WAY cheaper than buying breasts, and one chicken will easily feed our family multiple times.

Roast Chicken
1 chicken (sans neck & giblets)
2 TBS butter
Salt & Pepper
Olive oil
fresh rosemary & sage
onion, potatoes, parsnips, carrots (you can use pretty much any veggies you like)

Rinse chicken and pat try.  Rub butter both on and under the skin and liberally (very liberally) salt & pepper (go easier on the pepper than on the salt).  Place part of the onion, several springs of rosemary, & sage leaves in the chicken cavity.  Place chicken breast side up, tuck wings under bird and either tie legs on top or tuck legs into skin so that they remain on top of the bird while cooking (this is what I did since then you don't need any cooking twine).  Chop up vegetables and arrange around chicken in roasting pan.  Drizzle veggies minimally with olive oil and then salt/pepper the vegetables.  Roast at 425 for 1-1.5 hours (until thickest part of breast is at least 165 degrees).  Wait about 10 minutes before removing chicken to cutting board & carving.

Enjoy! :)

Recipes

Happy Holidays!  In honor of Christmas party season, I thought I'd share some of the party recipes I used this year.  What I love most about the first two is that they only contain 3 ingredients!!!  The first one, Oreo cookie balls comes from my sister in law.  I first had them over the holidays at her house when I was pregnant with my daughter.  I think I ate about 30 of them that day!

Oreo Cookie Balls
1 pkg Oreo cookies (regular - generic works just fine) ground to a crumbly powder (I use a food processor) - reserve some of the crumbs
1 pkg cream cheese
white or dark chocolate bark coating

Mix the cookie powder and cream cheese until a stiff dough is formed.  Roll into balls (bite-size), place in Ziploc bags and freeze (this makes them SO much easier to dip).  Melt bark coating in a double boiler and dip each ball in chocolate (using a toothpick) and let harden on wax paper.  Before chocolate has dried, top with reserved crumbs (or you can be creative and use crushed candy canes, heath bars, etc, you can also mix the crumbs with colored sprinkles, red & pink for valentines day, red & green for Christmas).   Once cool, store in airtight container.  I refrigerate if they won't be served until the next day.

Sausage Balls
3 cups Bisquick (generic works just fine - so does the low fat)
1 lb hot sausage
2 cups shredded cheddar (I use sharp)

Combine (this is much easier to do when all ingredients are at room temp.  Roll into 1" balls and bake at 350 for 25-30 mins.  One batch makes a lot!

Wassail
2 qt apple cider
2 cups pineapple juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup sugar (more if you'd like)
a couple of cinnamon sticks
1 tsp whole cloves
1 orange & lemon (optional - slice into rings and place on top for presentation)

Combine and bring to a simmer (except orange/lemon rings).  Reduce heat so that wassail is hot but not boiling.  Lay orange/lemon rings on top.  Can serve either in a pot on the stove or in a crockpot (I use a pretty pot).  It makes the house smell WONDERFUL!  

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Weekend & A Christmas Party

Whew!  Where have the last couple of weeks gone?  Hard to believe that the Christmas season is already here!  Thanksgiving was a lot of fun at our house.  My in-laws were here for a wonderful visit (we all miss them!).  My husband and I ran a 5K on an EXTREMELY cold (in the teens w/snow!) Thanksgiving morning and our oldest son ran his first race...a 1K.  We bundled him up enough to face the arctic winds, but at least he wasn't cold.  He had a great time and got to run it with his friends.  Aren't they adorable?!?

After the race, we all went home, thawed, and got ready to EAT!  We fried our turkey for the first time and it was WONDERFUL!  The best part was that the oven was completely free for all the sides since the turkey was cooking outdoors.  In addition, the turkey cooked in only about an hour - a far cry from the 4-5 hours that it usually takes!  After the meal, we all sat around, watched football, chatted, and then of course, got dessert!  YUM!

The festivities continued for a few more days when we got to see some dear friends who moved away at the end of the summer.  Love them so much!

As quick as Thanksgiving was over I started planning for my husband's departmental Christmas party that we hosted at our house last night.  Since he changed positions, this was the first social gathering he's had with his new group so the stakes were high to make sure everything went smoothly.  We had a few glitches - mostly with the outdoor decorations (I think we visited Lowe's every day for a week!) - but everything went smoothly during the actual party.  My husband works with a wonderful group of people and we really enjoyed having them in our home.  Hope your holiday season had been happy and bright!