A hug like never before.

"An entire kindergarten class is apparently unaccounted for."

This is the sentence I heard the newscaster say on the car radio as I was driving around running errands with my four-year-old and one-year-old in the back seat.  I heard this sentence as I was at stoplight at the intersection, waiting to turn left to go on to our street, directly across from my daughter's elementary school.  I looked at the clock.  It said 12:32.  I looked at the playground.  It was empty.  My daughter leaves recess to go to lunch at 12:30.  I just missed seeing her on the playground by two minutes.  She is a kindergartener.  

My daughter's bus finally pulled up to our driveway at 4:05 p.m.  I'd been waiting and staring out the front window since 3:45, anxiously awaiting for 4:00 when I go get my coat and wait outside to greet my little girl.  There she is - looking like a giant purple marshmallow in her snowpants, coat, boots and hat.  Grinning ear to ear because it's a Friday, she made a new friend today, and tomorrow she gets to sleep in and help daddy make pancakes and bacon for breakfast.  She has no idea what has happened.  She has no idea why her mom runs toward her even before she takes the last step off the bus, scoops all of her 55 pounds up in her arms and hugs her tighter than maybe ever before.   She hugs me back and tells me that she has a new library book in her backpack to read tonight.  I glance up at the busdriver and he gives a soft smile and knowing nod.  And we go back into our house and start our weekend.

20 little lives taken so early.  I can only imagine what they were doing - listening to their teacher read them a story, working on their daily math lesson, talking about the calendar.  Six brave lives of courageous teachers and staff taken too soon.  May God give comfort and peace to those families affected by the terrible tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary.  I pray for you all.

Using up leftover roast beef: Homemade Burrito Bowls

I finally made an entire roast the other day in the slow cooker.  I have a general to aversion to large, whole pieces of meat but I have conquered my fear in the last few months.  I am even cooking entire whole chickens now!  (The funny thing is, there is really nothing more simple than putting a whole chicken or roast into the crockpot.  What was I so afraid of?)  So this week I had a nice amount of leftover, tender, yummy roast beef to use up.  I decided to play around with it a bit (what?  being creative in the kitchen?  I'm totally branching out these days...) and create a homemade version of Chipotle's Burrito Bowl.

Everyone in my family loves Chipotle take-out.  In fact, we were falling into a pattern of having it about three times a month.  But at about $30 a pop each time to feed my whole crew, that really adds up.  So I dug around in my pantry and freezer and came up with the homemade version of my favorite Chipotle item - the burrito bowl.  My husband took a few bites and said "This is even better than Chipotle's."  Wowzers - now there's a compliment!  I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of the assembled bowls because they were a thing of beauty.  Really.

Here's what I used, but use whatever you have on hand to suit your tastes and how many mouths you have to feed.  I apologize that the measurements are no where near exact - I just threw some stuff together and now I'm guessing:

Homemade Burrito Bowls:

2-3 cups leftover cooked roast beef
1/4 - 1/2 cup water
1 Tablespoon (or 1/3 packet) taco seasoning (I used this homemade taco seasoning)
2-3 cups cooked brown rice
1 can black beans
1/2 - 1 tsp. cumin
1/4 - 1/2 chopped onion
Toppings such as sour cream, lettuce, salsa, cheese

Combine water and taco seasoning in small bowl and whisk together.  Shred the leftover roast beef and place in saucepan with the water/seasoning mixture.  Simmer on low for a while.  Add more water as necessary to keep the beef moist.

Saute the chopped onion in a bit of olive oil.  Simmer the black beans (undrained) in a small saucepan with the cooked onion and cumin.  Simmer until heated through and the cumin flavor is really incorporated into the beans.

To assemble your bowls, start by putting the hot cooked rice on the bottom.  Top with a hearty scoop of black beans and follow with the beef.  And then comes the fun part - toppings of your choice!  We used guacamole (I found a packet of Wholly Guacamole in my freezer that I used, otherwise I would've left this out), sour cream, shredded romaine lettuce, salsa, green Tabasco, and some shredded Monterey Jack cheese.  Serve with chips and salsa.

Yumminess and love in a bowl.  And no where near $30 to feed us all.

This post is linked to Frugal Friday at Life As Mom.

Menu Plan: week of 7/16/12

Wow, it's been soooo long since my last post that I don't even recognize the Blogger page to type my posts anymore!  It is next to impossible to find a spare moment to come down the basement (where the computer is) by myself for longer than two minutes to type a post.  I've tried doing it with three kids running/crawling around me and that just leads to frustration and a cranky mommy shouting "Please give me five minutes of peace to type!"  So today I've squeezed in a few moments while all three kids are resting at the same time.  This will be short and sweet.

It is 100 degrees here today (again) so I've planned a menu using my stovetop and slow cookers.  Here is what is on our menu this week:

Monday:  Slow Cooker Roast Beef (my mom's recipe - just throw in two cans of Golden Mushroom soup with the roast and you have instant tender roast w/ gravy), Crockpot baked potatoes (yes, I have both slow cookers going today), corn, watermelon
Tuesday:  Beef and Bean Burritos (making up a recipe using leftover roast beef), chips and salsa
Wednesday:  Mac and Cheese soup (new recipe), fruit salad
Thursday:  Clean out the fridge night!
Friday:  Homemade pizza, Caesar salad

Check out I'm an Organizing Junkie for more menu planning ideas!

Yes, I'm still here!

I really do check my blog every day. Almost every day. I log on to read the blog posts from the listing of "my blog list." I love everyone's creativity and inspiration and encouragement on their blogs. But just not mine, I guess. Three and a half months have passed since my last post.
The Family 
We are all well. Hubby is still working hard but took time off to take the two older kids fishing this past weekend. He also has a six-day fishing trip in Canada coming up that will hopefully recharge his batteries and give him some much needed R&R.

My oldest daughter Alison turned FIVE years old in April and we celebrated with a "Hello Kitty" themed party. She also graduated from preschool last week and has been accepted into all-day kindergarten at our neighborhood elementary school!

My three-year-old son Christopher is still full of energy and growing by leaps and bounds every day. His current obsessions are aliens and toy guns and baby dolls. Thankfully not all at the same time.

My baby girl Katie is almost 8 months old. She is a beautiful, happy, sweet little girl that is still very much attached to her mama. I had intended to wrap up breastfeeding by now (six months is my comfort zone) but stubborn little girl hates the bottle and prefers her mama's milk straight from the tap. :-) I am hopeful that she will be weaned by our vacation in August so mama can enjoy some beach time without the hooter hider...

The House 
I still love our new house, which really isn't "new" anymore since we celebrated our one-year anniversary in this house in May. We gutted our laundry room/mud room closet and had a system installed so it's much more organized now. I'm working on cleaning out some closets and getting a few messy places under control. If/when I get back into the swing of blogging, I hope to post some before/after pictures soon.

The Kitchen 
I've been menu planning as usual but rarely does it get followed these days. Hubby's crazy schedule and quite a bit of traveling have left the menu plan a bit ignored. I also haven't cooked anything new in quite a while. I think my family is getting bored with the same old stuff so I am hopeful to try out some new recipes in the coming weeks and hopefully blog about some of it.

That's it for now. Baby needs a diaper change, boy has fallen while climbing up onto the potty without a step stool and oldest girl is desperately crying out for someone to play CandyLand with her.

Such is the life of a SAHM.

My Valentines

My Alison...

who comes up and gives me the biggest hugs ever and says, "Oh mama, I just can't get enough of you!"

My Christopher...

who is energetic, kind, funny and says "Excuse me" without being prompted in the stores when he walks by people.

My Katie...

my smiley little sweetheart who giggles and smiles right before she sneeezes.

I'm lucky to have the three sweetest Valentines ever!

Bread Machine Honey Wheat Buttermilk Bread

I have making this bread at least once a week lately. It is easy to throw together, uses ingredients I have on hand, and makes the house smell terrific. I have yet to master making "real" bread (kneading for umpteen minutes, letting it rise for however many hours, etc.) so the bread machine is one of my best friends. This is a nice dense bread. My kids and husband love it and, between the four of us, we usually go through one loaf in two meals - the night I make it for a side for supper, followed by the yummiest toast you've ever had the next morning for breakfast.


Bread Machine Honey Wheat Buttermilk Bread

1 cup plus 1 T. buttermilk, at room temp (or warmed in the microwave for the few seconds)
1 T. butter, room temp and cut into small pieces
2 T. honey
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp. yeast

Put the ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed. Use the whole wheat and light crust settings on your bread machine. (FYI: for my Oster bread machine, this takes 3 hours and 40 minutes until done.)

Menu Plan Monday - 1/30/12

This week's menu plan is pretty short as the kids and I are leaving town on Thursday for at least seven days while we are having nearly the entire interior of our house painted. We'll be staying with my parents (about a 3 1/2 hour drive away) for the week. On a quiet farm with no internet access...should be relaxing (hopefully!) We will miss my husband dearly, who of course has to stay behind, work, and put up with the paint smell and mess for the whole week. Here is what I have planned for our very short cooking week:

Breakfasts:
Waffles and bananas
cold cereal and toast
Blueberry Muffins and yogurt

Lunches:
Leftovers
Chicken strips, carrots, cottage cheese
Cheese quesadillas, apple slices, chips and salsa

Suppers:
Monday: Spaghetti with slow cooker marinara sauce (from the freezer), fruit salad, garlic toast made with leftover buttermilk honey bread (recipe for the bread to come this week!)

Tuesday: Slow Cooker Chili (carryover from last week), cornbread, fruit salad

Wednesday: clean out the fridge night!

Thursday - next week: out of town!

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie.