Veterans' Day

We were so excited that Grandpa and Grandma came over for the Veteran's Day celebration at the boys' school!  The boys even got to sit by Grandpa during the assembly instead of with their classes AND got to stay for the cookie and drink reception afterwards. 

Each of the boys made a poster about a veteran.  Ethan created his about Grandpa.  It's in the picture above, to the left and a bit above Elliott's head.

Elliott made his poster about PaPa.  It's right in between the boys in this picture.  We wished he could have been at the celebration too :(

Both of them (PaPa and Grandpa) were military policemen in the army.  We're very proud of you!!



menu on monday

Thinking about menus for the week.  Saw a good recipe for Garlic Parmesan Chicken over on allrecipes.com so I'm thinking about that now.  But here is what was at our house last week.  And, yes, we ate mostaccioli 3 nights in a row :)

Monday - make your own pizzas

Tuesday - Tuscan Chicken with pasta straight from Italy (thanks Amber), green beans, bread

Wednesday -  corn dogs, salad, green beans (*these were veggie corn dogs from Trader Joe's - I never would have bought them, but the boys chose them and I didn't see that they were veggie until they were already in the oven.  I didn't have one, but Brian and the boys all liked them and even commented that they weren't greasy like other corn dogs tend to be.  I never did tell them they were veggie dogs :)

Thursday - chili and cornbread

Friday - mostaccioli (my contribution to an Italian feast that was brought to our house for a student ministry meeting - YUM!)

Saturday - mostaccioli

Sunday - mostaccioli for the adults, PBJs for the kids

mostaccioli

I'm not sure how you're supposed to pronounce this.  I would say mah-stuh-choh-lee, but since moving to St. Louis I've heard many many people pronounce it mah-sKuh-choh-lee.  To me, there is definitely a "T" in there, but then I'm not Italian and I have a feeling some of these people grew up in an Italian family.  However you pronounce it, this is something our whole family eats.  It's easy, too, so thought I would share.


Mostaccioli

1 lb ground beef
4 cups mostaccioli, cooked, drained
1 (30 oz) jar spaghetti sauce (I usually add more so it doesn't get too dry)
dried basil
dried oregano
3/4 cup grated Romano cheese, divided
1 (8oz) pkg shredded Mozzarella cheese

Brown meat in large skillet; drain.

Stir in mostaccioli, spaghetti sauce, dried herbs, and 1/2 cup of the Romano cheese.  Spoon into 13x9 inch baking dish.  Top with mozzarella cheese and remaining 1/4 cup Romano cheese.

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes

Menus

This was the menu from last week.  I get such great ideas from other people who post their menus so I thought I would contribute, too.

monday - leftover chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, peas
tuesday - chicken quesadillas (recipe below), chips & salsa
wednesday - pork burgers
thursday - toasted turkey and cheese sandwiches, carrots, red pepper slices
friday - pizza
saturday - dinner out
sunday - cilantro-lime chicken, roasted asparagus, risotto, salad


Chicken Quesadillas


4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
15 oz can petite diced tomatoes
8 flour tortillas
2 cups Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese, shredded


In large skilllet, cook chicken with garlic and ground pepper until thoroughly cooked.  Remove from skillet and set aside.  Next, simmer tomatoes, green peppers, and onion, continuing to simmer until liquid is evaporated.  Remove from skillet and set aside.  (I usually chop the chicken into smaller pieces with a food chopper while the tomato mixture is simmering).


Mix the chicken back into the skillet with the tomato mixture.  Top half of a tortilla with some of the chicken mixture.  Sprinkle desired amount of cheese on top of that and then fold the other half of the tortilla over the mixture.  Place the tortilla in a nonstick skillet or a griddle over medium heat until each side is lightly browned.


Cut into wedges and serve with sour cream, salsa, guacamole, whatever your heart desires.


**We usually only end up eating four of these (the recipe makes 8), so I freeze the filling and just warm it up for a quick, easy meal another day

Happy Halloween

Very awesome Halloween at our house.  Complete with a lake monster, an army guy, Scooby Doo characters, first place at our first ever Trunk or Treat, dinner with great friends (a bit embarrassing to be in a restaurant in costume, but fun anyway), getting to see everyone's costumes, hanging out with Amber, Miss A and Miss E on the driveway passing out candy.  Very good.

More for me....

......than for you.  When I started scrapbooking when Elliott was born I tried to do a page for everything.  It was exhausting.  Then Ethan came along and I was making two of everything (when I had a chance to do any at all).  Doubly exhausting.  That wasn't working, so I tried a different approach where I just did a few pages here and there with no rhyme or reason - just whatever I felt like doing.  That was much better but I still felt this need to capture more. 

Then this trend (didn't know there were trends in scrapbooking, did you?) started surfacing to keep things simpler and document the everyday.  At first this seemed like backtracking to the exhausting days of trying to capture everything, but now I really love it.  I really started thinking about what pictures and stories I like to see and hear of my childhood, my parents' childhoods, my grandparents' lives and it wasn't so much the holidays or trips or birthdays.  It was that my dad and his 3 brothers ate a whole loaf of bread everyday after school (that's a lot of bread buying at the grocery store).  That my mom got into trouble at school for chewing gum (totally shocked by this).  That my grandma has a love for pretty dishes and started collecting them even before she was married (and I am so blessed to be enjoying some of these in my house now).  That my sisters and I played Little House on the Prairie all the time when we were young (just to note, Amber did not enjoy this).

Thinking about these stories made me realize that something that I would love to know is exactly how my mom or grandma spent their days when they were my age.  My mom wrote out very detailed notes about what the boys did when they were babies when she and dad kept each of them for about a week.  These are one of my favorite things in the boys' scrapbooks cause it's a little slice of their life at that point in time.

So I decided to do this for me this past week - document my days in detail.  It wasn't necessarily a typical week, because Brian had worked the weekend and so had two extra days off during the work week, but it is what it is.  So here it is.


Sunday

6:30 up and shower
7:00 breakfast for me and boys
7:30 back upstairs to finish getting ready for church
8:00 make sure I've got everything for the class I'm teaching this morning
8:30 leave for church
8:40 make copies for class
9:00 church
10:30 teach class at church
12:30 out to lunch with awesome friends
2:00 grocery store for potluck tonight
2:30 home and Bible study lesson
3:00 check email
3:05 start this blog post
3:15 work on materials for Family Effects tonight
4:00 make salad for potluck tonight
4:45 go to Family Effects
8:15 home from Family Effects/get boys ready for bed
9:00 boys in bed/start cleaning kitchen
10:00 BED!!

Monday:
6:25 up and get dressed
6:40 quiet time - prayer and Bible study
7:15 check email and Reader
7:30 get breakfast ready
7:45 breakfast
8:00 make lunches
8:20 take boys to school/ B and I to the gym
9:45 straighten up some of the house from the weekend/start laundry
10:30 start cleaning out the garage with B
12:00 lunch
1:00 laundry again
1:15 finish editing pictures from a photo shoot and burn to disk
1:30 pick up pics from Walgreens to send out for Elliott for the Lego contest
2:00 to Lowe's with B
3:00 home and shower
4:10 bank
4:45 volleyball game with good friends
7:15 dinner at Culver's
9:00 kids in bed
9:15 look for instructions for a project to do tomorrow/edit photos/time to self and to talk to B
11:00 BED

Tuesday

6:30 up and dressed
7:00 quiet time/Bible Study/prayer
7:30 check email/Reader
7:45 get boys up and breakfast ready
8:00 breakfast and family Bible story
8:20 boys to school/ B and I to Walmart
9:00 finish cleaning up breakfast dishes
9:15 strip beds and start laundry
9:30 water plants outside
9:40 chop veggies for dinner tonight/get things ready for errands (returns, etc.)
10:00 pick up batting to cut at friend's house
10:15 returns at Old Navy
10:30 returns at Walmart (forgot them earlier)
11:00 lunch with Amanda, Elle and Brent for Amanda's birthday
12:15 to Chesterfield for errands
3:10 get in line to pick up boys
3:45 hair cuts for boys
4:30 Target for Halloween costumes
5:15 Walmart for Halloween costumes (because we have to check both places, you know?)
6:00 start dinner
6:30 dinner with boys
6:45 clean up dinner dishes and put Brian's dinner in the oven to stay warm
7:00 help Elliott try on clothes to see what goes back (and watch Ethan run down the hallway 162 times in  his new Combat Commander costume)
7:00 more laundry
7:30 start getting boys ready for bed (ask Elliott for the 100th time why he doesn't just move his Legos to the other side of the room so that I can get through to his bed)
7:30 put sheets back on boys' beds
8:00 read stories with Ethan
8:15 happily listen to Elliott's endless stories about school and beyond (they always start as soon as he crawls into bed)
8:30 lights out for the boys
8:30 check email/blog
9:20 cut out 25 24x24 squares of batting for Elliott's fall party
9:45 B home (I'm still cutting squares)
10:45 finish the squares/snack and bed

Wednesday

6:45 up and dressed
7:00 Quiet time/prayers/Bible study
7:30 make biscuits for breakfast
7:45 get boys up
8:00 breakfast
8:20 take boys to school/ go to gym with B
9:45 clean up breakfast dishes and straighten kitchen and family room
10:15 shower and clean the shower
11:30 my mom and dad arrive (yay!)
11:45 help unload the bedroom furniture that my parents brought for us
12:30 out to lunch with B and my parents
2:00 to Lowes for some things my dad needs and to look at garage shelving
3:10 get in line to pick up the boys from school
3:45 homework/hang out with Mom and Dad
5:15 visit with Amanda after Mom and Dad leave while the boys play outside
5:30 start dinner
6:00 eat dinner
6:30 leave for church
8:45 put the boys to bed while B runs to Lowes
9:30 catch up on some of the online class I signed up for about customizing your blog - I'm pretty sure that was a waste of time
10:00 watch Color Splash with B
10:30 bed

Thursday

7:00 wake and dress (overslept-yikes!)
7:30 breakfast
8:00 make lunches/get things together for errands
8:20 take boys to school
8:40 Walmart run
9:00 Take a meal to church for a family that lost a loved one
9:20 Take batting squares to friend's house for Elliott's Fall party tomorrow
9:30 Take CD of photo session from last week to my neighbor
9:50 Start watering the yard
10:00 check email/blog
10:15 straighten family room
10:30 fold clothes and put them away
10:30 move the sprinklers in the yard
10:45 call some consignment stores to decide what to do with clothes
11:00 sort through the clothes to consign
11:30 laundry
11:40 lunch/watch the rest of a House Hunters episode
12:00 write some more of this blog post
12:15 switch the laundry/fold sheets and towels and put away
12:45 leave for volunteering at school
3:45 snack with the boys/go through school papers
4:00 start homework with the boys
4:25 start more laundry
4:30 check email
4:35 Bible story project with Ethan
5:00 add to the blog post
5:15 start getting everyone ready for soccer practice (water bottles, cleats, socks, shin guards, balls, chairs)
5:30 B home!
5:40 leave for soccer practice
7:00 eat at McDonalds after the boys defeated the parents in the scrimmage
7:45 home/adjust Elliott's Halloween costume for tomorrow
8:00 start getting boys to bed
8:30 get myself ready for bed
8:45 put a load of laundry in on the delay wash cycle so it's ready to dry when I get up in the morning
8:50 sit down and drink some more of the Dr. Pepper I got at McDonalds/ read a magazine
9:00 watch Biggest Loser with B
11:00 bed

Friday

6:25 up and dressed
7:05 switch laundry
7:10 Quiet time/prayers/Bible study
7:25 check email/blog
7:30 get breakfast ready/start making cookies for a funeral dinner
8:00 breakfast/last minute adjustments to costume
8:20 B takes boys to school/clean breakfast dishes
8:30 fold and put clothes away
8:45 start more laundry
8:55 start packing for Aunt Meemer's
10:00 leave to help decorate for women's retreat
10:15 stop by McDonalds to get an early lunch (note to self:  they do not serve lunch before 10:30)
10:25 meet up with other ladies to go out to campgrounds to decorate
12:45 go to Ethan's Halloween parade and party at school/Elliott's party at school
3:30 get home from school/finish packing
4:30 leave for Aunt Meemer's
8:30ish arrive at Aunt Meemer's and welcome the weekend!!

Saturday (somewhat sketchy cause I forgot to keep track that day)

morning  - do family picture at the Quad
                 watch some football

afternoon - lunch at Jimmy John's (yum!)
                  The Great Pumpkin Patch
                  Beachy's Bulk Foods (cinnamon chips, pear preserves, cinnamon rolls, pumpkin whoopie pies)
                  Meemer's birthday dinner at The Great Impasta

evening -   hang out at Aunt Meemer's
                 order some Christmas gifts

loves from last week (and beyond)

LOVE that we ate McDonald's by candlelight when the power went off for a few hours right at dinnertime.  We were going to just go eat somewhere but the boys begged to take it home and get to eat in the dark - so fun!

LOVE that Elliott is incredibly creative and expresses it by designing and building Lego creations and writing books.  This Lego creation is a Lego Factory complete with conveyor belts, computers, a guy on a segway, and a truck and loading dock.  He sent it in for a contest in the Lego magazine so we'll see if they like it as much as we do.

LOVE that Ethan always wants to wear a tie to church along with funky socks and fun shoes.  I about fell over yesterday when he came down for breakfast before school and his entire outfit actually matched!  I'm pretty sure it was a one time deal.

LOVE that Ethan's teacher is who she is.  She's fun and creative and loving and awesome with kindergarteners.  AND she wore braids to the pumpkin patch field trip - LOVEthat!

P.S. Ethan really does LOVE her too - he just was embarrassed that I wanted to take his picture - he has to act all cool you know?

LOVE that we had a fun soccer season.  LOVE that this was the last game we were able to go to and that I was able to get this shot with cool lighting.  Not loving that we have a parents vs. kids scrimmage at practice tonight - that will surely be embarrassing for yours truly.

LOVE this girl.  LOVE her family.  LOVE that God has blessed with friends that are just like family to us.