How To Eat A Banana...

Have Mama pull back the peel. Take a big bite!


And another big bite.


Don't forget to pull back the peel as you eat more and more of this delicious fruit.


When you think you are almost done, shake the peel to make sure that you didn't miss anything!

What's For Dinner?

Spaghetti Pie!

4 oz uncooked spaghetti
1/2 pound ground beef
1 jar spaghetti sauce
3 egg whites
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook spaghetti and drain. Mix together spaghetti, 2 egg whites and Parmesan cheese. Press into bottom and up sides of greased pie pan. Mix together 1 egg white and ricotta cheese. Place on top of spaghetti. Add meat sauce. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Top with cheese and bake for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Let rest 5 minutes before slicing.

I had been wanting to try this for a while. It is a nice change to regular ole spaghetti. Enjoy!

Coupon Organization

Since bringing Megan home I have been struggling with my coupons. This is my current coupon organizer.


I pull out the coupons I know I am going to use before I go shopping and paperclip them to my shopping list. The problem I was having is if I found something while shopping and had to thumb through this, hold my list and keep a toddler entertained. This just wasn't working for me.


This is my solution.


I bought a binder and found picture holders for my coupons. I was able to add tabs and break things down. I am able to have as many pockets within a category that I need. I can now separate my toothpaste and shampoo coupons where in the past they were all lumped together in one pocket. The thing I love most about this is that I have a category for CVS so I can keep track of my ECB's, craft store and restaurants coupons. I also have a pocket in the front for storing my shopping list. I am sure that as I use this more I will have some kinks to work out, but for the moments I am loving it!

Muffin Fun!

While watching Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee I saw her make muffins in a tin can. I am always looking for ways to spice up dinner so I added this to my list of things to try. I made Blueberry Muffins in soup cans and they turned out great!


1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup frozen blueberries, thawed and well drained.

Heat over to 350 degrees. (For regular muffins heat to 400) Grease entire inside of tin can (or bottoms of muffin tins). Beat milk, oil, vanilla and eggs. Stir in flour, sugar, baking powder and salt all at once just until four is moistened (batter will be lumpy). Fold in blueberries. Fill cans 3/4 full. Bake for 15 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Yields 5 soup can muffins. Enjoy!

Checking In

I just wanted to pop in and let everyone know that Megan is feeling better. Yesterday she ran a low grade fever and today there is no fever. I can tell she still does not feel well because she is very grumpy. She is also waking up several times during the night, which is unusual for her.

I am so tired of this virus! I have washed all of the bedding and the throws from the living room are going into the wash next. Also on my to do list is for all of Megan's toys to get a good cleaning. Even though it is freezing here I plan to send Chuck and Megan out for a little while and open all the windows to air this place out. I am determined to get rid of this!

Thank you for all of your well wishes. If I am not back to regular posting tomorrow I will be on Monday.

How I Spent My Day...

Taking care of one sick little girl.

When I got Megan up today I could tell she had a fever. She was 100.8 when I got her up. She ate breakfast and played. She refused lunch, napped and woke up with a 103.4 temp. I called the doctor and we went in for an afternoon visit. No strep, no ear infection, conclusion is that it is viral. We were given a prescription to help with her running nose and congestion.

You know a 19 month is not feeling well when this is how her evening is spent.

At this time she was running a 104.7 temp. She finally ate half of a popcicle. All we can do is keep alternating the drugs for fever and try to keep her hydrated. The night could be interesting!

Weekend Review

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. Mine was busy and relaxing at the same time. Friday morning was grocery time. Chuck had the day off so he tagged along. I usually spend more when he is along, but that is okay. It is always nice when he goes along. That evening we dropped Megan off with my mother-in-law. She had been hinting that it was time for Megan to come and visit. While she was there we went to pick out the new flooring for our bathroom. I am so excited and the best part is that it is on sale! We then hit a new bookstore. While there we picked up a book of Bible stories to go in Megan's Easter Basket.

Saturday morning we meet my parents for breakfast. Yum! We then did a little shopping. I bought Megan's Easter dress and a few capri outfits for Spring. Come on Spring! By the time we were done shopping and finished a couple of other errands Megan was sacked out in the car. We decided to go for a drive so she could get a good nap. We ended up finding a 620 acre historic farm for sale. If only... a girl can dream!

Sunday was a day of rest. I overdid it a little and keep having fits of coughing. After a week of taking it easy it felt really good to be out and about this weekend. Have a great Monday!

Valentine Fun

Yesterday was a fun day! Here is the table all set for the party.

I used my favorite table cloth. I use this a lot in the summer for our picnics. I added my cake plate to the middle of the table with cupcakes inside. The picture doesn't show this well, but around the base of the cake stand was sugar cookies cut into X & O's along with heart shapes. At each place there was a muffin cup that had conversation hearts inside.

Because I hadn't been feeling well I was happy when Monica posted with a link to coloring pages. The kids had a good time coloring these and snacking on their conversation hearts.

Then it was time for snack.

After snack they played for while and when they left everyone received a goodie bag.

I had some candy inside: Reese's Peanut Butter Heart, box of conversation sweet tarts. For the girls I also had a candy bracelet. For the lone little man he had candy that was shaped like wheels.

I had planned on pizza for dinner, but was treated to dinner out instead. For dinner tonight we will feast on pizza topped with a cheese heart. To make this heart I placed a cookie cutter on top and filled it in with cheese. So easy!

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I think that I am ready to join the land of the living again. This virus that I have is a hard one! I have been getting lots of rest. Going to bed before 9pm and taking a nap each day. Taking a nap is not something that I do often. Even as a child I wasn't much of a napper. I still easily tire, but life must go on!

Yesterday I spent the afternoon making cupcakes!

I made 48 cupcakes. Some for our Valentine party this afternoon and the rest were for Chuck to take into his office to share. I will be sure to take lots of pictures today so I can share the fun of Megan's first Valentine Day. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Under the Weather

Chuck wasn't feeling his best last week, I ran around wiping Megan's nose all week and sent my 2 year old niece home with a fever on Thursday. All the hand washing and hand sanitizer didn't work to keep the germs away from me. I woke up Friday morning and knew that I had caught a cold. I went ahead and did my grocery shopping and continued to feel worse as the day went on. I spend the entire weekend resting. I did shower, but got right back into my PJ's! Chuck was on weekend duty. He did a great job of taking care of me and especially Megan. I am feeling better, but still not great. I am spending the day resting and trying to get the house back in order from Daddy Duty! If my post are sparse this week you will know that I am resting and trying to start feeling my best again. I am off to take a nap!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

For those of you who are little rusty on your Chinese, "Gung Hay Fat Choy" means "Best wishes and Congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year."

Today begins the Chinese New Year, the year of the Rat.

Xin Nian Kuai Le! Happy New Year to you all!

Happenings

It is hard to believe that it is Wednesday already. This week is just flying by! Things have been busy here. Chuck was home yesterday. He has had a headache since Monday that he just can't shake. On top of that he just feels icky. I am helping out my sister-in-law this week. I am keeping her children for three days instead of my normal one day. She called around lunch yesterday saying that she had to work mandatory four hours overtime. Yikes! That meant that I had my niece and nephew from 6:30 in the morning until 8pm. That makes for a long day, especially since they will return this morning at 6:30. I won't comment on what I think of this whole situation.

Chinese New Year begins on Thursday. I am really not prepared! We decided not to go out for dinner since my niece and nephew will be here until 6:30 that evening. Chuck's day begins early so we usually eat dinner shortly after 4:30. I am still working on getting our meal planned and am hoping to have time to put together little gift boxes to send home with Megan's friends that day. If I get it all together I will let you all know how they turn out.

That is what is happening around here. If I happen to disapear for a day or so you'll know that I am just busy with life. Have a good day!

Thoughts of Spring

Sunday afternoon my parents stopped by and Mom surprised me with my favorite flower, tulips. With tulips blooming on my window sill and temps reaching near 60 degrees I have been having thoughts of Spring. Too bad temps will be down in the 30's come Wednesday. Oh well, Spring will come soon enough. In the mean time just the thought of Spring makes me happy!

Homemade Hot Pockets

A few weeks ago my husband went to the grocery store with me. That usually means that things end up in the cart that normally wouldn't be there. One thing that ended up in the cart was a box of Hot Pockets. Quite pricey not to mention who knows what is in them. My solutions was to try making my own.

Make bread recipe of your choice. (I use the basic white from Betty Crocker.) Allow bread to rise. Punch down dough and divide into 16 pieces (for a double loaf recipe). Roll each section of dough into a circle. Add your desired filling. I made ham & cheese and pizza. Fold over your dough and pinch edges together. Pinch firmly so they won't open while rising. I used a fork to make a good seal. Allow to rise. Note: it may take longer then normal to rise if your filling is cold. Bake at 400 for approximately 10 minutes.

The leftovers went into my freezer for lunches. They can be re-heated in the microwave for a minute or two, depending on how hot your microwave is. Chuck gaves these the thumbs up, so this will be a staple around our house. Enjoy!

One Year Ago...

One year ago today we received the call letting us know we had a referral. We waited 17 months for our referral. We had dreamed of our baby girl, spoke of her daily and our hearts were already full of love for her. This is the first picture we saw of our sweet Megan.

I can't even put into words what I felt at that moment. I was crying tears of joy and could not believe that after years of longing for a child, here she was. Parenthood is everything I imagined and more. Challenging, exhausting and most of all rewarding. Hearing my sweet girl say Mama and getting her wonderful kisses just warm my heart.

What a difference a year makes!