MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE?!

Okay, after doing a little shopping around, I do believe I've found a new home. I figure a cross country move and blog move would be good to happen around the same time. I don't like changes spread out, so let's group it all together now! haha!! ;-) Totally kidding and that was a lame joke. But anyway.....

Seriously though, I've moved. Blogspot has been good to me, but I like the pad over at at Wordpress. I'll keep this up though, just in case anyone is lost. heehee ;-)

Here is the address: http://www.bransblahg.wordpress.com/

Refer to that from now on. Thanks!! Love you! Hope you follow! ;-)

Bran
p.s. If you have me on your blogroll, would you be so kind as to change it for me? Thanks love!

Opinion Wanted

Check me out HERE and see if you like it better. I'm still not sure. The verdict is still out. So let me know what the jury decides. ;-) DON'T FORGET MOUTHWATERING MONDAY BELOW EITHER!

Mouth Watering Monday (and a sweet potato allergy update)

So I am getting a jump on my mouth watering Monday here, but we just had this for dinner tonight and it was YUMMMM-AY. Plus I really don’t want to be on tomorrow very much.
My mother in law gave me a recipe several years ago for her chili. She made it when she came to visit us in Missouri and I later called her and asked for the recipe. I was slightly frustrated b/c her “recipe” was in her head and she tweaked it every time she made it. For a new “cook” like me, that was hard to do. But over the years I have learned to tweak it myself and I no longer use a referrence for it. It’s so simple and easy, and tweaking it to fit your cooking mood is fun! Enjoy!

1-2lbs of hamburger

packet of taco seasoning

two cans of petite diced tomatoes (sometimes I use the cans with onions and peppers in them)

one can of black beans

one can of kidney beans

one can of a white bean (garbanzo, navy, great northern…take your pic)

*sometimes I put in a can of corn or green chilies too, depends on my mood

two small cans of tomato sauce

one small diced onion

one tablespoon chopped garlic (or garlic seasoning, but real is better)

Seasonings: cumin, paprika, onion (if you don’t use real), garlic (if you don’t use real), cayenne pepper. Just season to taste. Jake likes spicy and so do I so if it’s just us I use a lot of cayenne. For parties I make two crocks, one mild, one hot.

In a skillet brown the hamburger meat, onions, and garlic. When thoroughly cooked, add in taco seasoning DRY (do not add water). Mix around and once fully cooked, add meat to crock pot. Add in beans and tomatoes and tomato sauce. If you want thicker chili, use tomato paste instead of sauce. Cook in crockpot on high for 3-4 hours. If you want it to simmer all day, just put it on low. Makes the house yummy smelly too!

To eat with dinner I either make cornbread or quesadillas. I know, totally opposite side dishes. With the cornbread I put the cornbread in a bowl and pour chili over it. With the quesadillas I put the chili in a bowl, top with sour cream and cheese, and dip quesadilla triangles in it. Soooo gooooooood.

Ya gotta try this dinner! It’s so yummy! And if you have more hamburger meat than you need for the chili, since it is already seasoned, you can save it for tacos another night. Let me know if you try it!

==========

So I said I would update about finding out about Owen’s allergy to sweet potatoes. Now mind you, a doctor didn’t tell me this. In fact, they weren’t too interested in the fact that I had JUST fed him sweet potatoes an hour before his episode. I googled “infant allergy to sweet potatoes” and came up with a lot of the same scenarios. Check them out for yourself. From now on, I am going to play it safe and NOT give Owen any sweet potatoes. Poor kid, won’t ever know of the yummy goodness of sweet potato pie! Here are the sites:

Click Here (scroll down a bit on this one)

and here

and here too

and don’t forget this one (more for allergy resource)

Okay that’s enough for now. If you google other combinations of “sweet potatoes, allergy, vomitting, infant” stuff like that, you get more sites. One site I found (I’ll have to find it again) showed a controlled study in a small group of infants that had a sweet potato allergy. So, I think we’ll go with “sweet potato allergy” just to be safe.

Now go make some chili!

Personal DNA

I'm an Attentive Curator.

Check out the results of my personality here. Some parts are earily right on.

God Laughs

My sister in law has this saying, "make plans and hear God laugh" and she is soooo right.

Kim emailed everyone from our link group asking for volunteers to host this weekend. I volunteered.

My sister in law is coming this tuesday to help me with stuff for moving. She is an organizational freak and I am lucky she is so willing to help me, considering she lives in Portland.

This morning, the boys woke up with green goo. GREEN GOO. Their noses look like they had green play doh shoved up there. Totally gross. Oh, and Owen is coughing a bit. Oh, AND he threw up last night. Projectile vomit across the couch. For about an hour or so afterwards I was in a complete panic waiting for "the other shoe to drop." It never did, thank God. Owen remained bubbly and happy and NOT passed out. ;-)

God is laughing at my plans I think. I had to cancel on link group :( and I emailed my sister in law telling her about the boys. If they are sick she can't come b/c she has a 3yo and my brother in law is self employed so he REALLY can't get sick.

I am really really hoping and praying they are not sick come Monday night/Tuesday morning.

I'm frustrated today.

I had a dream about moving last night. We moved into the most narrow house ever. It was a nice house, but it was narrow. Weird. Oh, and we made the drive in two days. That was sweet.

God, please don't laugh at our plans to move. ;-)

Oh and something really great: Owen is crawling. The kid is on the move!! It's amazing how fast they pick this stuff up. He is better today than he was yesterday. Every day he gets better and better. I love it.

I love my kids. I love watching them be creative. For Valentines I got them play doh sets. A play doh duffel bag of play doh stuff with cutters, and a pasta maker, and a roller. They each got one. And they each got a play doh tub. One tub is for picnic stuff and the other is for animals. They have played with those for HOURS. They love it. Especially Dylan. :D I thought I would not like them having play doh but they seem to be doing pretty well with it.

Today we are going to go through more stuff to take to the dump. I wish I could snap my fingers and have this done. I am seriosly contemplating moving into our trailer NOW and just coming to the house to do stuff for the move. That way what I get done stays done. I don't know. That seems extreme. But it also would simplify things for me. If my sister in law (she does have a name btw, it's Teresa haha) comes I think we'll do that after she leaves actually. That is what we were going to do after the movers take all of our stuff anyway.

Okay, off to do something productive. I promised Sean I'd blog about the sweet potato allergy thing, so I will for sure be back this weekend with that. ;-) Check Sean out. He has a baby on the way. :D

Funny Ha Ha Friday

I forgot to add the funnies to my previous post about getting busted. ;-)

Here are a few funnies from the last week with the kids:

McKenna was running to the boys' room and she said "Lets go Dylan! You're tagging me!" and squeeled and ran off. hahaha!!! Kind of like a few weeks ago when she was running/hopping and I said "McKenna I said no running" and she said "I'm not, I'm hopping hip" (skipping) heehee Oh the things kids say. ;-)

I was putting the kiddos down for a nap and Aidan lost his paci one day. This is what happens....he has it and tries to hide from me (b/c he's not supposed to have it) and then he loses it somewhere in the house. Normally I take it from them and put them up, but this morning he left it in his bed like he's supposed to so I didn't think about it again. Anyway, I'm looking for this paci and getting IRRITATED b/c he can't sleep without it and I can't find it. I said "This is so stupid!" while I was looking through toys and stuffed animals. Then, from his crib, he says, "mommy, we don't say soopid. Soopid is a mean." hahaha!! I love when they correct me.Honest. I do. It means they know it. ;-)

Today the boys were taking their bikes to the backyard from the garage and Aidan was pushing his bike and said "I have BIIIIIIIG muscles!"

Earlier this week I caught Dylan and McKenna playing "baby." She was trying to nurse him. That was a fun game to walk in on! I had to explain how only mommies and babies do that sort of thing. ;-) haha!!

Also this week, Aidan found "cat poop" under the kitchen table one morning. We don't have a cat. Upon further examination I realized HE had pooped under the table. The night before. After bath. When we let them run naked for a few minutes. How this went unnoticed you ask? It was late, the lights were off, and we had already had dinner with no reason to go back to the table. I can't believe I didn't notice it. I did however SMELL it that night, but thought they just were tooting. Next time I think I'll follow my nose. ;-)

Dylan to McKenna: "Do you know what gooerish means? It means when I don't like something"

Dylan: "Mommy! Aidan says HE is Uncle Nate and he's not!"
Me: "Well it's okay if he wants to pretend to be Uncle Nate"
Dylan: "But IIIIIIIIIIIII want to be Uncle Nate!!"
Me: "You can be Uncle Nate too"
Dylan: "NO! I want Aidan to be Aunt Teresa!"
hahahahaha!!!!
He was literally in tears over this. Hysterically crying. haha!

BUSTED

Brent busted me!

Okay so I said I wouldn't be getting on here for a few days, and while I did really good the first day, the second day not so much. I did refrain from posting and commenting though. Now that is quite the accomplishment on my part. haha!

Even though I didn't completely stay away, I did minimize my time drastically. And what a difference it made! It was a good lesson for me in priorities, boundaries, and everything in MODERATION. Too much of anything IS a bad thing.

In my profile when I say I tend to get sucked into the computer once I turn it on....yeah, I wasn't kidding. Even though I am reading some amazing stuff and having some great conversations, or enjoying a friendly debate here and there, too much is too much. And when your kid tells you he feels gooerish about you being on the computer....well, that'll snap you to attention if nothing else.

I did accomplish a lot these last few days, and the best part, I was able to hear God without all the "noise" in my head. God knows my heart, and he knows what I am struggling with, but when I am so immersed in what I am doing elsewhere, I can't hear him. What I miss when I am not paying attention! All this time (last couple of months) I've felt like a failure at being a good mom, wife, homemaker. Brent reminded me that I am a perfectionist. Yes, yes I am. *Hi I'm Brandy and I am a perfectionist* meaning that I have this IDEA in my mind of how I want things to be, and I can NEVER reach it. EVER. And I know it. So instead of just trying to be good at stuff, I don't even try b/c I know I won't reach my level of perfection.....the unrealistic one I have in my head. Just being good is not good enough. It has to be perfect. And if it's not, why bother? See my problem? I have a feeling this is going to be a life long battle for me. Like an alcoholic is always an alcoholic. A perfectionist is always a perfectionist. Every day is a battle to "stay on the wagon" so to say, for lack of a better example at the moment.

I have always been a fan of the sayings "go big or go home" and "if you're going to do a half a$$ job, don't do it at all" and "there is right way and a wrong way and your way is not right" (haha). That last one is a testament to the fact that I can't accept help either. I am bad at that. And only I can fix that.

The other thing I have enjoyed these last two days: my kids. Oh the fun we've had! And that's always worth it.

So here is my attempt at adding a little imperfect "grey" into my life. Finding a middle ground. Setting some boundaries. Being imperfect. ;-)

Talk To Me Tuesday

Okay so my question today is, what do you do when you find yourself so overwhelmed with life to the point where you are not coping well?? How do you get back on track? How do you realign yourself??

I am so off track I just yelled at my son b/c he couldn't figure out his v-smile game. Not my proudest moment. At all.

So to realign myself, with my kids, with my husband, with my house, with my God, I am getting rid of distractions. For a while. And this, this has been a distraction. One I enjoy very much. Very much.

So I am off for a while to clean, to spend time with my kiddos, to spend time with God, to spend time with myself, to spend time paying attention to Jake. BUT, when I come back I want lots of advice on other ways to get back on track. Lots of advice. Preferably advice that would keep me from reaching this point of feeling overwhelmed. My sister in law says I am a black and white person. This is true. Very true. I need some shades of grey. ;-)

I'll be back, in a few days or so. And I won't be lurking (aww that was just painful to say).

Looooooooove yoooooouuuus!

Issues

Obviously I'm having blog issues. I'm not very happy about this. :(

My links will all be back up soon and I'll have a decent layout back up too.

I'm irritated. At myself. Grrrrr.

My Favorite Things

Beaming boy smiles and little baby kisses
Long brown eyelashes and magical wishes
Pulling around all their cars with a string
These are a few of my favorite things

Warm cups of hot chocolate and marshmallow minis
Special treats and good eats and magical pennies
Watching them run and gleefully sing
These are a few of my favorite things

Boys in blue jeans with dirt on their knees
Hearing "I love you" and "thanks" and "please"
Kissing their boo boos after a ding
These are a few of my favorite things

When my head hurts
When the dinner burns
When I'm feeling mad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad