Manic Mondays ~ Deceiving

Continuing on from last weeks Manic Mondays post....

I checked out the book Deceptively Delicious, by Jessica Seinfeld (yes, married to Jerry) at the library today. I have never been a fan of tricking your kids into eating fruits and veggies because I believe that they will have a hard time learning to eat them, like them or even love them when they are older. I could be very wrong I really don't know. Sam has always been one to eat his fruits and veggies but since he's not eating that much lately and I know that his nutrition value has gone down (yes, he even takes vitamins) I'm going to give this a try.

On Amazon there is one review for this book that has a great suggestion that I may do mainly because I can always use help in the "doing it quick and easy" area. Here is what she suggested: "...one suggestion for busy parents - use organic baby food. I don't have a food processor and I don't have a dedicated block of time to clean, cook and prepare all the purees for the week. For about $.65 (or less) per jar, I can have 1/2 cup of organic winter squash etc. that has already been cleaned, cooked and pureed for me. Plus, it will keep on the shelf until I need it so I can buy extra when they go on sale." Now I can do this!

I'm open to reading suggestions so please leave some comments. Just remember to be nice.

The House Smelled GOOOOOOD Today!

Since it's been so hot around here I did some baking today. I figured that since I want to keep making bread that it would just be good to heat up the house once instead of every day. So today I made three different loaves of bread: Chipolte Bread, Oatmeal Raisin Breakfast Bread and an Italian Loaf that we had with dinner tonight.

The bread on the left is the Oatmeal Raisin Bread and the one on the right is the Chipolte Bread.

Speaking of dinner, I put together 1/2 a pound of Penne Rigate Noodles (left over from earlier this week), Spaghetti Meat Sauce (frozen from a previous meal), medium onion diced and sauteed and an 8 oz. package of cream cheese.

After the onions were sauteed I mixed in a bowl the cream cheese and the onions until well incorporated.

I layered in a 9"x9" dish the noodles and sauce together, then a layer of the onions and cream cheese mixed together followed by another layer of the noodles and sauce.

Then baked it in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. Did it at that temp and for that long because that is what my Italian bread called for and I baked them at the same time. Had both for dinner. They came out GREAT! I'll make them both again soon. And to think that the main part came mostly from leftovers. Unfortunately I forgot to take a pictures of both the main dish and the Italian Bread. Mainly because we were all so hungry and wanted to sit down and eat while it was all still hot. When I make it again I'll get some pictures.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I've been busy around here and haven't had much time to not only visit my favorite blogs but also update my own.

The newest news, or at least it's news to Sam, is that we got a pool! I joined Freecycle and posted on several of the local groups that I had a son that loves to swim but we didn't have a pool. I had a lady that answered me and she had one that her daughter was getting rid of and it was mine! What I love about Freecycle is that it is free to join and everything must be free that you are giving away. So I now have an above ground pool that is 3 1/2 feet tall by 14 feet across, the ladder to get in it and the filter and hoses. This type of pool runs anywhere between $200 - $300 in the stores! Andy and I spent this last Friday and Saturday setting it up and Sam was in it late Saturday afternoon. As soon as we got home from church on Sunday he was back in it. And of course he was back in it yesterday. Here are a few pictures so far:
Starting to fill up the pool. Started on Friday evening and finished Saturday afternoon.
Sam checking out the progress of the pool. The wait was about to drive him (and us) crazy!
I asked Sam if he was excited about having a pool and you tell his answer by the look on his face.
Finally in the pool and enjoying himself. I know that I cut his head off in this photo and he's not centered but I still enjoy looking at the expression on his face. Pure happiness!
So far this is my favorite picture. In fact it is now the wallpaper on my computer.

I know that I'll be spending money on the upkeep of this pool but with the cost of gas now I know that I'll be coming out ahead in my pocketbook! Instead of having to drive to a pool or water park, which we still might do, I can walk out our backdoor and have a ton of fun in our own backyard.

Yesterday was Memorial Day and we had a wonderful dinner with two great friends, Beth and Bobby. They came over mid-afternoon and we had a lot of fun playing games, watching Sam swim in his pool, enjoying a wonderful dinner and of course friendship. I actually didn't take many pictures yesterday but do have some of my table and Beth's wonderful dessert.
Centerpiece was from a luncheon that was held at our church. I wasn't the "official" winner at the table I was sitting at but no one else really wanted it. I snatched it up and now have been putting it to use.
All that is missing now is the food!

Beth's dessert was sooooo good. And, Sam took this picture! He did a great job as the pictures I took of it didn't come out very good.

We had two milestones in Sam's life these past few weeks The first one is that Sam got his first Bible. He was very excited about receiving it and loves it. Of course, I had brought my camera with me to capture the moment but then realized that I had to go ring with one of the handbell choirs and couldn't take a picture then. So, I did the next best thing. I got a picture of him and our Senior Pastor after church.

Dear Sam,

I hope that one day you will look back on the day that you received your first Bible and know what a great day it was. I hope that your love of Jesus continues to grow and grow every day. I see you growing every day in your Christianity but probably don't tell you enough, I'll try to do better as you grow. I also wish for you that your children will learn as much from you as you do from them. I learn so much every day with you in my life. I thank God every day for putting you into our lives.

Love you,
Mom

The second milestone is that Sam has officially ranked as a Wolf in Cub Scouts. He had ranked quite earlier but we had the official ranking at our last Pack meeting. He's pretty proud of it and will now be a Bear next year.


I guess that's it for the updates now. I could go on and on with other things we have done but this is getting long enough. Counting today Sam only has 7 more days of school left and I don't know if he can contain his excitement about Summer Break starting. We are on our official countdown. We have a lot planned...but that's another post.

Dinner and Singing!

Last Friday evening my dear hubby took me out to a wonderful dinner at Rockfish Seafood Grill. It was so delicious! My favorite item there is one of their soups.

It's the Red Pepper Crab Bisque. In fact it is so good that I am going to search for a recipe similar to it and fix it here at home.

After dinner we went to the Christmas Show of The Vocal Majority. WOW! Those men can sing.

We were going to go out for dessert afterwards but we had to sit in traffic due to an accident on one of the highways. Oh well. It was still a wonderful evening.

Thank You Andy! I love you!!!