A Favorite Thing

In the mail this week, I received my newest issue of Kraft Food & Family and found this beauty. Super easy recipe involving a store-bought pie crust, 4 oz. cream cheese, 3 apples, a little sugar, flour and cinnamon--that's it! Oh, and cool whip. I love it when easy and delicious come together!

I just love apple pie and while they call this a Freestyle Apple Tart, it's close enough to call pie. The recipe calls for 2-3 apples, I used 2 granny smiths and a pink lady, keeping it an all girl pie. I bet you could use other fruit too, like pears, even peaches or plums if you're that's what you like.

If you don't get the magazine, you can sign up for it here www.kraftfoods.com/share. There are always lots of great, easy recipes that are also easy to adjust to whatever you like.

On a side note, as soon as I find the little grey cord that is used to move pictures from my camera to the computer, I'll get some pictures posted.

Also, I'm not sure what's up with the spacing on this thing it just doesn't want to cooperate right now.

** I made this pie/tart a second time this weekend and followed the directions exactly. It didn't taste quite the same and it took me awhile to figure it out. The first time I made it I sprinkled a little cinnamon and sugar on the cream cheese. It made the cheese nice and sweet rather than just cheese.

Too Busy Jumping

Saturday night Pa and I had a little dinner out for my big 33. We went to Bonefish Grill, which we would both highly recommend. Don't make the same mistake we did, though, make a reservation! We're pretty sure that the 'bang bang shrimp' sauce is just sirachi (thai) chili sauce and mayo, thinned out a little.

We got home pretty early, before 10 even, which ended up being a good thing when K was up at 1 with a splitting headache. A dose of tylenol and two hours later she was back up and still in pain. I convinced her to just try to relax and get some sleep but am pretty sure she just tossed and turned until about 6 when she convinced me that she just couldn't try anymore, and then she was unable to keep anything down for the next 12 hours before falling into a deep sleep then waking up this morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed all ready to go. Apparently a 24 hour bug.

Amazing how quickly she recovered. Tonight she was out kicking the soccer ball with Pa, learning how to bounce it off her head. G and I were practicing letters and numbers with sidewalk chalk. She's getting really good at A, 1, C and G. After about 15 minutes of drawing and asking 'what starts with c' G announced that she was 'too busy jumping' to continue.

That's just it, they're busy jumping and bouncing soccer balls off their heads. For these little girls, there's just too much stuff to do to spend too much time doing anything whether it's resting long enough to make sure you're 100% or sit on the sidewalk and draw with Mom.

It's tiny moments like this that call to mind how thankful I am to have such healthy (for the most part), bright and energetic girls to call my own. It shouldn't just be 'too busy jumping', it should be 'too busy jumping'.*

*so thankful they are mine

Soup's On!

It's soup season around our house -- we started a little early this year with just chili and baked potato so far and do have to admit that the baked potato was a cheater mix.

I love Bush's Chili Starter in mild, (we tried the Texas version and it was just right for Pa but too spicy for me) it has sauce, spices and beans, just brown and drain a pound of ground beef (I bet you could use turkey, and we've used cut up minute steaks) add a can of tomatoes and that's it. We usually add some chopped onion and green pepper, too.

A new one to try this year, chicken tortilla and looking for others to give a shot. I might get ambitious and try to make a vegetable or vegetable beef but I know I can't come close to matching my Mom's so I may just wait until she says she's making it. :) I am working on perfecting baking powder biscuits -- made some a week or so ago and they disappeared, and am looking for a nice moist cornbread recipe. Any ideas?

Goal!

Tonight, in her fourth season of playing Park & Rec soccer, K finally made her very first unassisted goal! Woo-hoo! Pa says she had a soccer version of a hat-trick: a goal, an assist and she was yellow-carded. (Not really, they don't yellow card in 2nd grade, but she did "accidentally" trip another player.)

G has trouble concentrating during K's soccer games. The fields/pitches are set up southwest of town with little hills coming off of each field. G likes to roll down the hills and run dizzily back up, to do it over and over the 50 minutes that the game takes. Tonight, silly us, we sat closer to the middle of the field and G was too scared of the other people there to go over and roll down the hill. In her whiny boredom, at one point tonight she lay down on the ground and plucked grass, spreading it all over herself. Ah, to be 3 and so strangely entertained...

Walking

I've started walking a lot lately, a couple miles almost everyday. Sometimes I take the girls with me, sometimes I go with the girls at work. If all the stars are in alignment, I get to take the long route (3.2mi) all by myself. The trouble is getting it in before it gets too dark.

I think that I started walking to get some exercise and drag the girls out from in front of the tv on Saturday mornings. Now I walk for a brief 45-60 minutes of clarity. Just me. That's rare for a parent of two young girls and I am thankful that Pa encourages me to go.

At church last Wednesday night, waiting on K to finish class, I was leafing through a hymnal and towards the back found the Morning Prayer of St. Patrick. The first stanza has popped into my mind while walking lately. Now, I'm not much of a praying person but this makes me think of being part of something bigger, something more important than the laundry and making sure to sweep the kitchen floor.

I arise today
through the strength of heaven,
light of sun,
radiance of the moon,
splendor of fire,
speed of lightening,
swiftness of the wind,
depth of the sea,
stability of the earth,
firmness of the rock.

An Old Favorite

I'm very happy to once again have found my favorite calendar ever. It was published for years and then for some reason abandoned in 2008. (I was stuck with a similar-in-design Garfield substitute.)

And now, thankfully, it has returned for 2009. It's the "Life is just so daily" calendar by Mary Engelbreit. I'm not very technical so, yes, I still rely on a wall calendar. A few of my favorite features: it's 12x24 inches when it's opened up so fits nicely inside a cupboard door so no one has to see it, with 5 writing lines within each week everyone gets their own line and I'm not confused about who has a dentist appointment, and there's a nice pocket at the bottom is a great place for invitations and soccer schedules.

My very favorite part--it matches my kitchen curtains! Here's the link to the store where I found it. I'll be buying soon. :) http://www.calendars.com/xq/asp/PID.1/MGID.-1/IID.44885/qx/product.htm

It's been a rather busy weekend around here. I got a late start on Saturday, it was my day to sleep in and I intended to sleep until about 9 but ended up sleeping way later than that. After 10 long weeks, I finally got a haircut, freeing my neck from the yuckiness that was my overgrown 'do.

Took K shopping for some much needed pants since she had a rather sudden growth spurt and was down to one pair of pants and couple capris. K is always an awesome shopper as long as it's just one on one. Add another parent or kid into the mix and it's just torture for everyone. We watched 2 girls get their ears pierced so she could see what it's all about but she's still not quite ready.

G and I went to a baby shower for Pa's cousin today. She was pretty good, in spite of skipping her nap. It probably helped that I didn't say a word when she scooped frosting off her cake with tortilla chips. Sometimes nutrition goes a little by the wayside. :)

Tomorrow it's back to work and school for the girls. I really wish that the weekends would last a little longer, spend more time with the fam and have the house more in order. Then reality sets in and I'm dropping G at preschool and pulling into the parking ramp. Such is life...

End of the season

Last night Pa's brother came out to watch the chicklets so we could go to his last hockey game of the season. (They finished in 2nd place!) It's a lot of fun to get to watch him out there on the ice and hear the comments. Mostly, it's a lot of fun to hear him rile up his teammates and the opposition. He gets them just about ready to throw off their gloves and have a big brawl and lets off just enough to not get blamed for anything. Sounds about right, doesn't it. :)