Chicken Pot Pie

my sister keeps complaining that she doesn't have the domestic art cookbook. i don't think she really wants them; i just think she wants this recipe. it's the best chicken pot pie ever.

2 1/4 c. chicken broth 3 c. chicken breast, cooked & shredded

1/2 c. celery chopped 1 c. frozen peas

1/4 c. onion, chopped 1/4 c. fresh parsley, snipped

2 med. carrots, coarsely chopped 1/2 tsp. dried sage

3 tbsp. cornstarch 2 pre-made pie crusts

1 3/4 c. evaporated milk

preheat oven to 350. in medium saucepan combine 2 c. broth, celery, onions, and carrots. bring to a boil then reduce heat. cover and simmer for 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender. in a small bowl stir together the remaining 1/4 c. broth and cornstarch until smooth. slowly add cornstarch mixture to vegetables and broth. stir in milk. cook and stir for 1 minute. stir in chicken, peas, parsley, and sage. coat 2-qt. casserole dish with cooking spray then line with dough. gently pour chicken mixture into casserole dish and bake for 35-40 minutes until crust is golden brown.

* i do make a few changes. i omit the carrots and peas and add almost a whole bag of frozen mixed veggies. instead of baking in 2-qt. casserole dish i divide it into 2 pie pans and put one in the freezer; this recipe makes an excellent freezer meal. i use 3 pie crusts. i put one in the bottom of each pie plate and use the 3rd to cut into strips and lattice on the top of each pot pie.

LOVE this recipe! now maybe my sister will leave me alone about getting the cookbooks.  or maybe she should wait until mother's day, or her birthday, or another holiday where you receive gifts. :)

American Idol Junkies Reunite

it's back on, and i've always been a fan, but no one holds a candle to last year's brooke white, david archuleta, carly, or michael johns. sorry! hopefully it will get better. 

Check Your Mail, Meghan

Meghan should've received her 'prize' for the wedding ring post today. i didn't want to spoil the surprise for her, so i'm waiting until now to post what i've been working on. i got this bright idea when all my sister wanted for her bday were dish towels, and i've been whipping them up non-stop ever since. they are so cute and fast to make. they make great little gifts; i've even been known to use them for wrapping paper. they are much more practical and don't produce the waste, not to mention they are much cuter. looking for a great gift idea to wrap them with? you've got try the Domestic Art cookbooks by Patty Wright. they are F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S! i know she sells them at some little boutiques and by word of mouth. if interested, let me know and i can give you her contact info.  and if you're looking for some great wrapping, i know where you can find some. i have one blank towel left. if you're interested, leave me a comment letting me know your color preferences. if i have that fabric on hand, i'll make you one just to share the fun.

Sleeping Woes

I know after the last post many of you may be thinking our kids sleep with us at all times. well, they don't, but perhaps they should. our sweet little scooter bug (will) doesn't want to sleep anymore. gone are the days where we can just lay him in his crib and walk out and have him go to sleep. this has been going for over a month now, so i'm afraid it's not going to be a passing phase. it takes around an hour of crying and coaxing to get him to sleep at night. i'm patient because i did this with sam for, um, 3 years (??), but it doesn't mean i love it. any suggestions? it does seem like i remember sam getting worse around the 18-24 month with his sleeping. is this true with anyone else? i know it will pass, but any magical secrets would still be appreciated. here's to happy sleeping....

Tight Fit

this is what a typical morning looks like around our house. the boys make their way into our bed almost every morning by around 5-6. i've enjoyed the snuggle time and the chance to all to be together, but let's face it, it's getting a little crowded! i'm totally getting squeezed out! i guess i should be happy everyone wants to be close to mother. :)

Broken

if the activa 240 breaks one more needle, then that's it. i have spent on serious fortune on sewing needles in the last 3 weeks; i don't think i could afford myself to buy more. i'm hoping this last break will finally have taught me that you CAN NOT sew over safety pins without paying the consequences. unfortunately, i'm sure i will attempt to defy that consequence and try it again. when will i learn... maybe after another fortune spent on new needles. sigh...

And the Winner is...

WOW! you guys are all so creative in your responses! you all must have lost things before...

anyways, no one guessed it; your responses were far more creative & likely than where it actually was. however, i had to choose a winner, and meghan was the closest in her guess and i'll tell you why.

i actually found the ring on the carpet about 3 feet out of the bathroom. i'm pretty sure i know what happened and it was my fault. when i took a shower i set it on the counter and put dirty clothes on top. i think when i picked up the clothes it got picked up, too, and just fell out pretty quickly. i'm glad i wasn't too quick to blame sam or will. mostly i'm just glad it was found. 

meghan was the closest because she guessed the toilet. since the ring was found fairly close to the toilet, then she was the closest in her guess. not only that but it echoed a conversation i had with my sister amy as a teenager. we were discussing how much more important people/family are over material things. we even said that people are so important that if our child ever flushed our wedding ring down the toilet we wouldn't be too mad at them because the person would be so much more important than a ring. well, very true, but i have to admit i was sweating it a little thinking that was a potentially likely option. i kept repeating that... 'sam and will are more important than a ring, sam and will are more important than a ring...' thankfully it turned it up, and thankfully i had a few of you even care. 

meghan, i hope you like your fun prize. email me your kitchen colors and mailing address and i promise something fun will show up in your mailbox next week. :)

Thanks, Sam, I'll remember that....

today sam heard me say to a friend that sometimes i'm probably the meanest mom in the world. sam quickly crawled up on my lap and said, "you're not the meanest mom in the world; you are just my mom, and you're never naughty." WOW! i'm glad he sees it that way! i'll remember that for surely there will come a day when he might feel differently, but hopefully not.

by the way, don't forget to comment on where you think i found my wedding ring. i'm not kidding on the prize. i will announce the closest guess on wednesday (tomorrow) night. the prize is cute; i've been practicing. :)

Happy Birthday, Sister

Happy birthday to a sister who...

*listens more than talks

*is brilliant but will never tell you so

*is humble and lives that way, too

*is level-headed and takes everything in stride

*is a friend to those who need one the most

*is an auntie who can take care of my kids almost better than I can

*is resourceful and always able to find a good bargain

*is never quick to follow the trends of the world; she is who she wants to be

*is always willing to say yes and hardly ever no

*is one of the best little sisters anyone could ever ask or hope for!!!

Happy  Birthday, T! I can't believe you are 28 already!!

I once was lost but now am found...

the ring has been found. leave me a comment about where you think it was found, and if you get it right, i'll give you a prize. :) 

Missing wedding ring

has anyone seen my wedding ring? it's missing. been missing since friday. i've asked the mostly likely candidates and received little response. maybe it's gone forever, like flushed down the toilet or something. 

a taste of my childhood revisted

I was pleasantly surprised to be visited today by the Schawns man. At 1st glance through their catalog, I thought "no way will buy any of this overpriced food", but seeing Sam & Will staring at the Schawns man in amazement I caved at the memory. From as early as I can remember my grandma's basement deep freeze was stocked with mini cheese pizzas, sundae cones, chocolate fudge & strawberry ice cream cups, orange sherbet push-em pops, gallon size cookies and cream ice cream, corn dogs, and chicken cordon-bleus. We always overcooked the pizzas in the microwave, and I don't recall the sundae cones ever not tasting a little freezer burnt, but we didn't care. It was always a treat to have it and a treat when the Schawns man came. We'd gather around the table and flip through the catalog dreaming of all the other frozen delicacies but sticking with the good ole' standbys. I always had a crush on Sean the Schawn man; that's the 1st time I learned that "Sean" was pronounced like "Shawn" and not "Seen". :)   

I couldn't resist holding onto the memory and sharing it with my kids. As we ate our slightly freezer burnt sundae cones today I could've closed my eyes and been right back at my Ganny's. That's Sam and Will's 1st taste of what it was like to be there and hopefully it won't be their last. 

Brace Yourselves...

DISCLAIMER: It's ok if you don't like the hair or the plates; I didn't do either one for anyone but me (and Pete; he loves the hair). I just like the pics on the plates and love the herbs, and I love the hair because it's different from any color I've ever had. So here goes nothing...

notice how blue the eyes are :)

the plate on the wall
the new plates
just cute of Will 

it all started with a plate

ok, I've been feeling a little trapped within myself lately, like there's someone in there but they are not quite making it to the outside. I've felt that way with everything... the clothes I wear, the way I decorate, the activities I participate I am, the kind of friend of I am, the house I live in, and all the way down to the way I wear my hair. None of it really seems like me... maybe more of a copycat of the closest things around me that I kind of like. Ok, enough of that, on with the story. I first thought I would let this person out by decorating and creating my house to be and a reflection of how I think & am and for how I hope my family will feel when they are here. I started this process by finally shopping at the type of stores that I love, not the catalog type of stores that are popular but the second hand type that have lots of eclectic things that are just waiting to be given a new life. Anyways, this story is going somewhere, I promise. Over the last few weeks I have seen these plates. I loved them the moment I laid eyes on them and knew the exact place that I would want to display them. I didn't buy them; I was a little unsure if they would really work. Every time I went I told myself to buy them if they were still there, and every time they were still there but I still left without them. Until today. I bought them, and they are PERFECT for what I wanted. Different, yes, but perfect in the exact way I had imagined. What really started with the plate you might be asking? It gave me the  greatest boost of confidence to start living like I'm seeing instead of fighting it. So now I'm in a changing rampage. I changed my hair tonight. Brace yourselves. There will be pictures later. I would prefer to have clothes on and make-up done, and since I have spent the last 4 hours on my hair none of those things are happening right now. Check back, and know that I LOVE IT. 

Is there any hope for repair??????

Please tell me there is hope! Do you see this? In case you can't tell what it is, it is the cord to my dyson vacuum cleaner cut into three bungee cord pieces. Who did this one might ask? I'll give you a hint... it rhymes with "dam". 

Baby Blues

Baby Blues. That's exactly what Will has if one of his 8 babies is out of his sight for even a second. He has definitely been our softer, more tender child,  and it is very apparent in his choice of entertainment. He's never without his little ones, not even at night. I think it's precious. Even if some of you might be getting nervous.

finally, the light came on

I was talking with my sister today about a blog we are both familiar with. My sister commented on what an amazing person this blog girl is (and she really is!). Knowing all I know about this girl, a comment like this would have normally made me feel like I was less amazing because she is so, well, PERFECT. As I've thought all day about the girl and my sister's insight on her amazingness, the light finally came on. We really are all amazing, each and every one of us, especially as a mother.  Whether we are enjoying every second of it or just surviving it, it's amazing that we are mothering at all. Whatever route we go about it, I think it's all amazing. Think about it....

•  some mothers feed their children tofu and apples at every meal, and other mothers feed their children grilled cheese and homemade cookies, licking the beaters included. Isn't food amazing?
  
• some mothers have their children on a perfectly executed sleep routine, sleeping alone and all through the night, and other mothers let their children into their beds every night to sleep. Isn't sleep amazing?
• some mothers provide everyone in the family with their own the beautifully designed and decorated space, and some mothers don't bother and let their children see beauty in what they do have all nice and cozy with everyone else. Isn't having a home amazing?
• some mothers dance and sing with their children every day, and other mothers provide endless hours of Barney music. Isn't music amazing?
• some mothers provide 100 crafts a day to provoke creativity, and some mothers let their kids run around outside for hours. Isn't creativity amazing?
• some mothers teach important life lessons by using a magnet board with handmade accessories and perfectly prepared scripts, and some mothers teach important life lessons with a look or just a few words in passing. Aren't life lessons amazing?
• some mothers document every day of their child's life through eloquently written daily blog posts and professional looking pics, and some mothers write a few things on a daily calendar. Isn't preserving all these memories amazing?
• some mothers can imagine wild and adventurous stories off the top of their heads at any given moment, and some mothers can read a story or two everyday to their children. Aren't stories amazing?
• some mothers can make everything they need by hand, and some mothers know the best places to go to find the things their family needs. Isn't having our needs met amazing?
• some mothers can go all day with never needing a break, and some mothers do their best for 2 hours at a time and then need a break. Isn't doing our best amazing?
• some mothers raise their children on their own, and some mothers have the help of a spouse. Isn't having the privilege of raising our kids at all amazing?

Now that's just scratching the surface, but you get the point.  I'm going to stop thinking about how amazing some are and how unamazing others are. Instead I'm going to remember that however we go about it, we are all amazing for just doing it at all.